Taiwan’s six special municipalities, three smaller cities and thirteen counties are subdivided into 368 geographical units. Among them are municipal districts like Taipei’s Wenshan (文山); county-administered cities such as Yuanlin (員林) in Changhua County; urban townships like Luodong (羅東) in Yilan County; and rural townships, of which Nantou County’s Sinyi (信義) is one of the largest in terms of land area if not population.
In several of these places, for example Lukang (鹿港) and Hengchun (恆春), tourism is a major industry. Many others are ignored, rightly or wrongly, by sightseers.
This article looks at four perennially overlooked towns. None of them
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who has been smoking for 52 years, yesterday signed up for the Health Promotion Administration’s (HPA) smoking cessation competition to encourage other people to quit smoking.
The minister announced his decision and signed a registration form at a news conference held by the HPA and the John Tung Foundation in Taipei yesterday to promote this year’s program.
Chen, who is 69, said he started smoking when he was 17, and even when Chang Po-ya (張博雅), then-minister of the now-defunct department of health, asked him to be the convener of the smoking cessation competition, he
‘HARD DECISION’: Chen Shih-chung, who started smoking when he was 17, said he would try his best to give up the habit to encourage other smokers to do the sameBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Presidential Office on Tuesday released a list of 102 people who have been appointed to advise President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on national policy and other government matters.
From Tuesday to May 19 next year, 76 of them are to serve as national policy advisers and 26 as senior advisers, drawing on their experience as former government officials and in the private sector, a press release posted on the Presidential Office Web site said.
The senior advisers, who hold a higher rank than national policy advisers, are usually former high-ranking government officials, business magnates or highly respected civil leaders.
Six
Dump the KMT party song for a real anthem
By Lau Yi-te 劉一德
As the year’s end approaches, does President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) still plan to lead the nation in a rousing rendition of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party anthem on Jan. 1?
The lyrics of the current version of the anthem date back to 1924, when Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial rule.
It was adapted from an inaugural ceremony address given by Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), a founder of the Republic of China (ROC), at the Whampoa Military Academy.
The KMT later commandeered it as its party anthem, after which it became the ROC anthem.