Rainy season front brings heavy rain to Taiwan: East coast road and rail links cut by landslides

landslide blocks east coast line at Chongde Station

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Hualien County, plum rain, rain front, suhua highway

A rainy season front is expected to bring heavy rain to Taiwan for the next week, and has already triggered landslides in areas destabilized by an earthquake earlier this month. Road and rail services between Yilan County and Hualien City are cut off after a series of landslides in Xiulin Township, Hualien County this afternoon. According to Taiwan Railway Corporation, a landslide has covered both northbound and southbound tracks between Chongde Station and Heren Station. An EMU 3000 express train

Traffic Accidents

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Taoyuan City

A man has been charged with negligent homicide after his girlfriend jumped out of his moving car and died in Taoyuan City two days ago. According to reports, the 49-year-old woman, named Zeng, and her 47-year-old boyfriend, named Song, left a party in the early hours of the morning April 15. While driving on Wenlin Road in Guanyin District, the couple had an argument over “trivial matters.” Zeng then opened the car door and jumped out. Video footage of the

sisters charged in fatal child abuse case

Society

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment child-abuse, childcare

Two sisters have been formally charged after a months-long investigation into the abuse and death of a one-year-old child placed in their care late last year. According to the investigation, the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) placed the child in the full-time foster care of a registered nanny named Liu Tsai-hsuan at her home in Wenshan District, Taipei City, in September 2023. On December 24, Liu took the child to hospital claiming that he had choked on milk. The child

bees swarm on propeller at Kinmen Airport

Aviation

April 15, 2024April 15, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment bees, Kinmen Airport

A flight from Kinmen Airport to Taipei was delayed for 54 minutes after a swarm of bees descended on the airplane, stinging one passenger and two ground staff yesterday, April 14. According to United Daily News, 70 passengers were about to board Mandarin Airlines Flight AE-1272 when bees began to swarm around the aircraft shortly after 3:00 pm. After one of the passengers and two ground crew members were stung, airport administration ordered the passengers to return to the departure

Earthquakes

April 11, 2024April 11, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Hualien County, hualien earthquake, train accident, train derailed

An express train bound for Taipei City derailed after hitting a boulder that fell onto the tracks in last night, but fortunately nobody was injured in the accident. According to reports, the Puyuma express train #445 from Taitung to New Taipei City hit a boulder and derailed near Heping Train Station in Xiulin Township in Hualien County at 9:10 pm. The accident caused traffic in both directions of the railway to be stopped. None of the 146 passengers or staff

Sport

April 9, 2024April 10, 2024 Lyon Chiang 0 Comment Asian Games, Joanna Garland, tennis

Lyon Chiang: Taipei After last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, tennis player Joanna Garland, of Taiwanese-English descent, headed to Changsha, China, on April 6th. Joining forces with teammates Hsieh Su-wei, Chan Hao-ching, and others, she’s set to represent the Chinese Taipei team in the Kingen Cup starting on the 8th. Garland’s main goal for the year is to support Taiwan in the Olympics, due to her determined spirit to see Taiwanese athletes shine on the Olympic stage. Hsieh Su-wei, the

partially collapsed building in Hualien City

Earthquakes

April 3, 2024April 3, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment earthquake, Hualien County

Story still being revised and updated: 12:58 pm. Four people have died, and 98 are injured. Many people heading to work and school around Taiwan this morning had their morning commute interrupted when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the east coast, causing shockwaves that shut down train and metro services in the capital Taipei and other cities. According to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, the earthquake struck at 7:58 am, at a depth of 15.5 kilometers, 25 kilometers south-southeast of Hualien

Drugs

April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment drug smuggling, heroin, Taoyuan International Airport

A 60-year-old Australian woman has been charged for attempting to smuggle nearly 7 kilograms of heroin into Taiwan via Taoyuan International Airport. Taiwan’s Aviation Police Bureau announced today that the woman was arrested at Taoyuan International Airport in December 2023 when customs officers found a package containing 6.926 kilograms of heroin in her suitcase. According to the police press release, customs officers spotted abnormalities in the suitcase during an X-ray inspection of inbound luggage. Customs officers waited until the woman

Traffic Accidents

March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 Phillip Charlier 1 Comment bus accident, Kaohsiung City

One man died at the scene, and 14 people were injured, after a bus crashed into the roof of an underpass designed exclusively for motorcycles in Kaohsiung City yesterday, March 20. According to reports, at around 8:25 pm Wednesday, the 56-year-old driver named Deng (鄧) drove a double-deck tour bus in the motorcycle lane of a freeway underpass on Shuiguan Road in Renwu District, apparently ignoring height limit warning signs. Deng, sitting in the lower deck driver compartment, drove the

searcher in Taiwan's Central mountain range

Health and Safety

March 12, 2024March 12, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment mountain rescue, search and rescue, Yushan National Park

The bodies of a couple who went missing while hiking on Yushan (Mount Jade) 9 days ago were found at the bottom of a slope below the south peak this morning, Tuesday, March 12. Zhang Zhongyi and his wife Wang Mingli, both 55 years old, were last seen at the Yuanfeng Cabin when they left to climb the south peak on the morning of March 3. Other mountain climbers reported them missing on March 5 after they did not return

physics teacher drops cat to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum

Animals

March 6, 2024March 6, 2024 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment animal abuse

A Taipei City cram school teacher has apologized after receiving widespread condemnation for using a real cat to demonstrate what physicists call “the falling cat problem.” Physics teacher Lee Feng took to social media late last night to make a public apology after a video of him conducting the experiment went viral yesterday. The video shows Lee holding a ginger cat upside down by its legs before releasing it and letting it fall to the ground in front of a