Living in Taiwan
The English name for 黑甜菜/hei1tian2cai4 is Black nightshade, and the variety we have here in Taiwan is either Solanum nigrum or Solanum americanum.
(Also see http://nat.mhps.cyc.edu.tw/xyzplant/show.php?my_pid=197.)
This edible wild plant can be cooked in many different ways and has medicinal properties. We usually fry it with a generous amount of garlic and add salt to taste. The ripe, purple berries are delicious.
Heitiancai on the right
A view from above
Uniform-Invoice Prize Winning Numbers for Months 11-12, Year 2011
Special Prize
38032017
NT$10million for matching all the digits from the above special prize winning number.
Grand Prize
38095343
NT$2 million for matching all the digits from the above grand prize winning number.
First Prize
38583186
87541883
03658286
NT$200,000 for matching all the digits from any of the above first prize winning numbers.
Second Prize
NT$40,000 for matching the last seven digits from any of the first prize winning numbers.
Third Prize
NT$10,000 for matching the last six digits from any of the first prize winning numbers.
Fourth Prize
NT$4,000 for matching the last five digits from any of the first prize winning numbers.
Fifth Prize
NT$1,000 for matching the last four digits from any of the first prize winning numbers.
Sixth Prize
NT$200 for matching the last three digits from any of the first prize winning numbers.
Additional Sixth Prize
680
618
NT$200 for matching all the three digits from the above prize winning numbers.
Find the official announcement at http://english.etax.nat.gov.tw/wSite/ct?xItem=78568&ctNode=11647.
The websites that host the on-line dictionaries mentioned in the below article can be found at:
http://chinese-linguipedia.org/ (Taiwan site)
http://www.zhonghuayuwen.org/ (Chinese site)
These links have also been added to the Formosahut wiki.
Dictionary compiled by Taiwan, China talents released in Beijing
Beijing, Feb. 8 (CNA) A new dictionary jointly compiled by scholars and experts from Taiwan and China made its first public appearance in Beijing Wednesday, highlighting the expansion of cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The dictionary, which includes common Mandarin Chinese words and phrases used in Taiwan and China, is part of a cross-strait cooperation project aimed at compiling and publishing Chinese language reference books and setting up a website that incorporates a database in the languages used in Taiwan and China.
When was the last time you used, or even saw, a pay phone in Taiwan?
I’m assuming that ‘long distance’ here refers to calls being made within Taiwan, not, say, from Taitung to Chicago.
Long-distance call rates from public phones going down
By Shelley Shan / Staff ReporterStarting on March 1, people using public telephones to make long-distance calls will be charged NT$1 per minute, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
Currently, payphone users are charged NT$1 per 20 seconds if they make long-distance calls during regular hours and are charged NT$1 per 35 seconds if they call during off-peak hours.
The new scheme, which was approved by the commission yesterday, will charge payphone users NT$1 per minute, regardless of whether they are long-distance or intralocality calls. However, people calling from payphones to mobile phones will still be charged NT$10 per minute.
As I posted on a different blog, these working visas for students are, in my opinion, absolute crap. Aside from the case cited below which has been widely reported, I’ve heard negative stories first hand from a number of students who have gone to the US for a ‘working-study’ program. It’s largely bullshit, as far as I can tell. I strongly suggest that anybody considering going to the US on one of these visas take some serious time to research their ‘contract’ and consider their options.
Full refund offered to students to withdraw from U.S. job program
2012/02/03 23:23:14Taipei, Feb. 3 (CNA) The Taiwanese agent working with the Council for Educational Travel, USA, (Cetusa) to authorize summer job visas to the United States said Friday it will offer full refunds to students who want to withdraw from the program in the wake of a scandal related to the U.S. nonprofit group.
According to foreign media reports, the U.S. State Department recentlybanned Cetusa from bringing foreign students to the United States to work for the summer after many students who participated in the program last year filed complaints that they were abused. The ban took effect on Jan. 30.
The Taiwanese agent for Cetusa said around 50 to 60 students had paid a visa application fee of NT$5,000 (US$169.45) at the time the ban was imposed.
The agent has sent out letters to inform students of the problem and said it would seek alternative solutions for those still wishing to participate.
In August 2011, hundreds of students placed by Cetusa in a Hershey’s chocolate factory in Pennsylvania for the summer protested their low pay and poor working conditions, sparking an investigation of Cetusa by the U.S. State Department, according to the New York Times.
The program, which was started in 1963, enables more than 100,000 college students to work in America every year on a J-1 visa, a non-immigrant visa issued by the United States to promote cultural exchanges.
(By Hsu Chih-wei and Maia Huang)
enditem/ls
This is why we just stayed home and did nothing during the New Year madness. I’m glad it’s over.
Taitung sees explosion in Lunar New Year visitor numbers
Taipei, Jan. 30 (CNA) Tourists who visited the eastern county of Taitung over the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday period outnumbered the regular population by two to one, while eight times the number of cars registered in the county were on the county’s roads, county officials said Monday.
According to county government estimates, 491,515 visitors traveled to the county over the nine days. As of last December, the county had a population of some 228,000 people.
Vehicles on the South Link Highway, the Hualien-Taitung Coastal Highway and the Hualien-Taitung section of Provincial Highway No. 9 during the period totaled over 490,000, well above the 60,000 cars registered in Taitung, according to Taitung police statistics.
The car flow slowed northbound traffic between southern Taitung’s Dawu Township and Taitung City in the central part of the county from the usual one hour to over three hours at some points, the police said.
They said it took visitors more than two hours to travel by car from northern Taitung’s Chihshang to Taitung City on the third and fourth days of the Lunar New Year, a drive that usually takes only 40 minutes.
It looks fairly certain that Taiwan will now gain entry into the US Visa Waiver Program, and possibly quite soon. I can’t imagine them finishing it until after the Chinese New Year is well over, but it looks fairly sure it will be done certainly by the end of the year and more probably in time for the summer travel season. Questions do remain such as, once it’s agreed to, how soon will it be implemented? Will current holders of non-e-passports be eligible?
Let’s see some details and soon!
After all, now that they’ve essentially announced that it’s going to happen, many if not most Taiwanese who were planning non-essential travel to the US in the coming months are now going to wait until the expensive procedure of getting a US visa, expensive especially for those not living in Taipei, which is the majority of Taiwanese, is no longer necessary.
MOFA expects visa-waiver inspection to begin soon
A team from the U.S Department of Homeland Security is expected to commence shortly on-site assessment of Taiwan’s anti-terrorism and immigration procedures, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.「Although the date for this visit is yet to be set, we believe it will take place in the very near future,」 said Remus Chen, deputy director-general of MOFA’s Department of North American Affairs, Dec. 27.
「The sooner Washington completes the visa-waiver evaluation process, the sooner ROC nationals can benefit from the program.」
Jason C. Yuan, ROC representative to the U.S., said he expects the visit to take place after the Christmas and New Year holidays by February at the latest.
To meet VWP requirements, Taiwan now issues e-passports, exchanges information on lost and stolen passports and keeps its visa refusal rate below the 3-percent threshold. The country has also inked agreements with the U.S. on programs covering anti-terrorism and combating major crimes.
If admitted into the VWP, ROC citizens traveling to the U.S. for tourism or business trips can stay up to 90 days without having to apply for visa in advance.
The U.S. has granted visa-free privileges to 36 countries, six of which are located in Asia—Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. (JSM)
The worsening economy in Europe and the continuing weakness in the US is starting to take its toll on the housing market in China. This plus the recent easing of credit in China could be the straw that broke the housing bubble’s back.
Asian Equities Decline Amid Signs European Crisis Is Worsening
“Home Sales – Developers in Hong Kong declined after a government report showed home sales in December plunged 36 percent in value from a year earlier, while unit sales tumbled 54 percent.”
We saw a dead sea krait on the beach today, specifically a Yellow-Lipped Sea Krait, or LATICAUDA COLUBRINA. (黃唇青斑海蛇 (huang2chun2qing1ban1hai3she2).
Although it doesn’t show in this crappy cell-phone picture, there was a distinct yellow stripe on the bottom of the snake.
Laticauda colubrina are the world’s most venomous snakes. However, due to their inoffensive, docile nature they seldom bite, even in self defense.
http://www.snakesoftaiwan.com/Laticauda%20colubrina/species_laticauda_colubrina.htm
And from another site:
Sea Snakes also present a high degree of danger to humans particularly after tropical storms when they are washed ashore becoming virtually helpless to move and extremely dangerous alive or dead.
The heads of dead snakes, even after having been chopped of the body, apparently have the ability to bite due to muscle spasms or reactions. The guy below looks like he got stuck on the rocks at high tide.
And surrealistically juxtaposed to our friend above was Minnie. You see a lot of stuff on the beach, but rarely do you see a Minnie. Less rarely I suspect, although it was the first time for me, do you see a dead Yellow-Lipped Sea Krait. But very rarely I’m sure do you see both at the same time.
