全通翻譯/翻譯社

Chunghwa Post officially inaugurated direct Chinese yuan-denominated remittances today. A total of 165 post office locations throughout Taiwan will be able to perform this new service. 

One of Taiwan's largest institutions is now entering the Chinese yuan remittance business.

In the past, those wanting to remit Chinese yuan, would first have to convert NT dollars into US dollars which were then remitted to a recipient in China who would need to convert the foreign currency into Chinese yuan. Now, people in Taiwan can convert NT dollars into Chinese yuan and have the funds directly remitted. 
A fee of NT$250 will be charged and transactions will be capped at around NT$100,000 per remittance.

Ong Wen-chyi
Chunghwa Post Chairman
We spent at least six months ensuring that there were no problems with this remittance service and later discussed with relevant authorities how to take the next step. Logically speaking, if you make a remittance, you should also have a savings account. This involves many factors, so we needed to respect the opinions of authorities on this matter.

According to Chunghwa Post, a total of NT$1.3 billion was remitted to China by the post office last year, with the amount coming into Taiwan from China amounting to NT$400 million. The post office expects that direct yuan remittances will allow it to earn upwards of NT$10 million in transaction fees each year.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=8B0B7B54E229A4512B2C251C8F8440B3

Kaohsiung is trying a novel approach to market its fruit in Canada. It invited eight Canadian backpackers to work on local farms for 11 days and get a firsthand taste of Taiwan’s high-quality fruit, hoping that they will serve as fruit ambassadors when they get back home. 

Kristen Fong is a Canadian nurse who is in Taiwan for the first time to experience agricultural life. She earned honors as the top performer among eight Canadian backpackers trying their hand at farming, but she wasn’t sure why. 

Kristen Fong
Canadian Backpacker
I feel great. I don’t know, because I looked like I struggled the most.

Bringing Canadian backpackers and Taiwanese farmers together was an idea created by agricultural agencies to promote the country’s produce. 

Chen Ying-lian
Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau Official
We believe that having them promote our agricultural products through their perspective after coming to see the products is much better than us expending a lot of effort to promote our products. I think it’s more direct. 

Having these backpackers share their experience in Taiwan through social networking sites is the Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau’s newest attempt at marketing its products, as it tries to expand the market for Taiwan’s fruit.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=125B0C6162DBB0FD75EE8E6807D8B064

Next we have a touching story from Taitung where a teacher changed the life of one of his students. At one time, Wen Jun-wei was a problem child who hated school. But inspired by a lively math teacher, Wen developed a love of learning and got an A on a test after previously turning in an exam that scored just two points. 

Students in this junior high school classroom are busily reviewing their books ahead of an upcoming test. Among them, with his head down, is a student who at one point was considered a problem child.

Yeh Chia-jhu
Guidance Counselor
Every time he would be depressed and frustrated. Seeing him would make the teacher upset.

Wen Jun-wei is in his last year of junior high at a school in Chihshang Township, Taitung. In the past, he was known for misbehaving, and compared school to hell. His grades in elementary school reflected this attitude. Then, in his second year of junior high, he ended up with a teacher named Jhan Yong-ming. Jhan’s lively teaching style sparked Wen’s interest and encouraged him to work hard at math. By attending after-class review sessions, Wen made quick progress.

Wen Jun-wei
Student
In the past I didn’t care if I got two points on a test. But I went from scoring a two, to scoring 96. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I saw my score.

Wen’s progress has been compared to changes made among students in the French drama “The Chorus.” The patience and skill of one teacher instilled a joy of learning in a student who at one time struggled.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=2490ECB2B70F54AE8C996AF24F840FE9

Hot Springs Inflation
Resorts in Beitou have maintained 50 percent discounts on hot spring baths there for the past seven years, but prices are about to climb back up. Some operators in the Beitou resort area plan to raise prices 3-5 percent in July to reflect rising costs, and hot spring resorts in the hills east of Beitou could hike prices 10-20 percent in September.

Vacation for Hourly Workers
The Ministry of Labor has drafted rules that would protect the vacation rights of Taiwan’s 400,000 hourly workers. The rules include formulas that calculate vacation days, sick days and personal leave based on the number of hours worked. Employers who do not abide by the new rules will be subject to fines up to NT$300,000. 

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=61A53D14DA077C214BEF751B94CCE467

A rare procedure carried out in Taiwan has brought great joy to a couple from Shanghai. The pair came to Taiwan seeking their first child and ended up with a baby girl after the cryopreservation of the husband’s sperm, a donated egg and the embryo. A doctor who helped with the procedure said this was only the fifth time worldwide that all three types of cryopreservation were successfully used. 

This young girl, resting in her mom’s embrace, brought great joy to a couple from China. Her arrival wasn’t easy.

Nurse Practitioner
When they called here in the beginning, they were delighted to hear that they could register for and quickly receive a donated egg. Within a week they flew in from Shanghai to complete the necessary paperwork.

The couple faced many challenges. The woman is 48 years old and has already undergone menopause. With no legal avenue for them to have a baby in China because of a ban on egg donation, the couple sought assistance in Hsinchu. They ended up using a cryopreserved egg, and both the husband’s sperm and the embryo were also cryopreserved. It was the first time ever in Taiwan, and the fifth time in the world, that a child was born after all three stages of cryopreservation.

Wang Huai-lin
E-Stork Deputy Superintendent
The first time a baby was born using three stages of cryopreservation was in Italy. The other three instances were in China, but these all involved using the mother’s own egg. This case in Taiwan involved the use of a donated egg.

Over the past 16 years, the couple figures to have spent about NT$500,000 trying to become pregnant. Now that they have their first child, they say they are open to the idea of having a second.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=D7B7BED9F8580944F4C1778E8F9CAFA1

A local bank has introduced a new credit card function for smartphones. Clients who save their banking information onto their phone’s memory card can use the phone as a digital wallet and eliminate the need to carry a plastic credit card. 

Customers at this fast food restaurant can order from their table and pay by holding their cell phone over the menu, without ever speaking to the cashier.

Once the order is confirmed the food is prepared and then delivered straight to the table. These customers were happy with the convenient service.

To get a drink, all you have to do is wave your phone near the sensor of a vending machine. Your phone can also be used to pay for the bus or MRT. To take advantage of this service, first ask your bank to save your credit card information onto an SD memory card, then just put the card into your phone. The phone then serves as a digital wallet. Safeguards are also in place if the phone is ever lost.

Hong Wen-an
Banking Employee
It’s the same as a traditional credit card. If you lose your phone, just report it to your credit card company.

Widespread smartphone use has made banks confident in the future of phone credit card services. But for now, this function is only available for Android users with phones that take SD cards and have near field communication capability.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/index.aspx

A market near Hsinchu Science Park has set aside three stalls to be used by charitable groups. Secondhand, donated goods and other items are sold to help the groups continue with their important work. 

Inside this warehouse there are cardboard boxes that contain donated goods. The hallway is also packed with bags of secondhand clothes. This charity is searching for a way to deal with all of these donated items.

Lin Mei-yu
St. Joseph’s Center for Special Ed. 
Some middle schools and elementary schools invite us to do charity sales during campus activities, such as on family days.

Still, this does not stop these donated supplies from piling up. Those who manage outdoor markets have tried to find a way to help.

This evening market has 130 stalls, three of which have been provided to social groups for hosting charity sales.

Chiang Yu-bao
Market Operator
Besides the charity sales at schools, they didn’t have an outlet to sell donated items. We provided three stalls to help them become self-reliant and sustainable.

Whether it’s secondhand goods or even handmade egg rolls, social groups take turns running the stalls to generate a little more revenue and stay afloat.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=169EBFE4A5902F4322ADA89ABA02A22A

A modern twist will be put on Taiwanese opera during upcoming performances at The Metropolitan Hall in Taipei. 

New elements for this show include projection lights and an animated LED background. An orchestra will perform using a mixture of eastern and western instruments. Producers want to give the audience an entirely new performance.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=A2F77A64382AA2AE7178A5B043287DAE

Costlier Medicine
Medicine isn’t immune to the rising prices. Among the products that will cost more from next month are painkillers from leading brand Panadol, which will increase by about NT$25 a package, or more than a fifth, and Mentholatum, which cost NT$5 to NT$15 more an item.

Weather Improves
Temperatures have gradually started to rise. The weakening of a cold surge and reduction in moisture led to good weather across Taiwan today. But this weekend, another wet weather system will begin to have an impact on the island. And forecasters predict sharp temperature differences between the daytime and nighttime. 

Lin Stays Put
The NBA trading deadline passed without a move by the Taiwanese-American point guard Jeremy Lin. Lin was the subject of many rumors over the past couple weeks, with speculation that even his past team, the New York Knicks, could be interested. But in the end, Lin remained a Houston Rocket.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=5A869DB9B3E6637951072C3969C0D7F8

Wave after wave of cold weather hasn’t seemed to dampen the demand for ice cream. On the heels of high-profile promotions of soft serve ice cream at local convenience stores, well-known ice cream brands from Japan and South Korea will also enter the market. 

FamilyMart, the first convenience store to enter the soft serve ice cream wars, introduced strawberry ice cream on Valentine's Day. It saw lines at many stores. 

7-Eleven introduced soft serve ice cream last October, and now a premium Japanese brand has also joined the battle.

Shiroichi Spokeswoman
When deciding when to launch, we didn’t take into consideration whether it was winter or summer.

A cone at Shiroichi will cost NT$185, much more than the NT$30 charged at FamilyMart or NT$35 at 7-Eleven. This was the reaction of the general public to Shiroichi’s relatively high price: 

“It’s a little expensive, but I will probably try it once.”

“I think it is a little more high-end and would like to give it a try.”

Not to be left out, a well-known South Korean ice cream maker will open in Taiwan in mid-March. At a price of NT$150 per cone, it too is targeting the high end of the market.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=4BEB4C393F8D04380D26C1715130D724

A ceremony was held to celebrate National Chung Hsing University’s merger with the National Senior High School of Agriculture and Technology and National Dali High School. It is the first time in Taiwan that a university is merging with a high school and a vocational school. 

The merger of the three schools in Taichung today led to the formation of the Affiliated Taichung Agricultural Senior High School of National Chung Hsing University. The university donated 300 young chicks to the high school to symbolize the spirit of agriculture that lives at its school.

Putting these chicks aboard an ox-cart, they depart from the university and are warmly welcomed by the high school students.

The merger is due to funding allocation. Before it took place, the Ministry of Education promised that total funding would not be cut.

Lee De-tsai
National Chung Hsing University President 
(K-12 Education Administration) Deputy Director Huang promised no change in education funding, so I think that merging the resources of National Chung Hsing University and these other two schools will produce results greater than the individual parts. In other words, one plus two will be greater than three.

With the three schools sharing financial resources, the university will have more of an opportunity to cultivate and recruit talented high school students.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=B953305F49FDB36C20CE36BEE91F17CD

an Tang, the chairman of the Foundation of Universal Design Education. Tang vigorously promotes the concept of universal design so that disabled people like him and anyone with special needs can lead easier, more fulfilling lives. 

Dan Tang 
Foundation of Universal Design Education
I respect bike lanes, and when I come across a cyclist, I say hello. With more bike lanes, those in wheelchairs have another road we can travel. This perfectly demonstrates the concept of universal design. 

For the past eight years, Dan Tang has promoted the Universal Design Award competition to spur innovation and greater convenience.

Dan Tang 
Foundation of Universal Design Education
Universal design implies ease of use, with the first consideration being fairness. The second is a variety of methods can be used, and the third is that the item is easy to understand. The fourth is that when you are using it, it teaches you a simpler way, and the fifth is if you use it improperly, it won’t result in an accident and can be easily restored to its original condition. The final consideration includes required storage space and the item’s dimensions. 

Twenty-five years ago, Tang took to the streets to push for a disabled friendly environment. He surveyed all potential barriers and sought to promote policies which could overcome them.

Dan Tang 
Foundation of Universal Design Education
In 2006, when I began speaking about universal design, I was in a wheelchair. Everyone thought I was speaking about something specific to wheelchair users. I wanted to strengthen my message by saying I was helping cyclists, pregnant women and the elderly. Still, it was very difficult to convince them.

One way Tang began to try and persuade people was by hosting the Universal Design Award.

Dan Tang 
Foundation of Universal Design Education
I began with education. By working with industrial design and product design departments, I pushed the concepts that we were using for the universal design competition. I hoped that big prize money would allow students to understand that their design shouldn’t just look cool or be visually stunning but should actually meet the requirements of users and help solve their problems. 

Chien Yi-ru簡伊汝, a student at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Industrial Education, participated in the competition. She undertook exhaustive research, later discovering that scooter barricades used in local parks also inadvertently prevented entrance by wheelchairs and baby strollers. She designed a new type of barricade which she submitted to the competition.

The Universal Design Award hopes to change design concepts among students. After impacting academia, it can change government policies and finally attract the attention of the construction industry

Kao Wen-ting
Taipei Dep’t of Urban Development 
An important part of universal design is eliminating differences in flooring height. From the door and throughout the entire interior, the height should be uniform, including all the way to the balcony.

Door thresholds in the home should also be smooth, making it easy for anyone to move between the kitchen, bathroom and other parts of the interior.

Kao Wen-ting
Taipei Dep’t of Urban Development 
In the bathroom, making the flooring a uniform height presented a problem of how to deal with water drainage. As you can see, there are two specially designed water drains, one by the shower area and one between the bathroom and the bedroom

Universal design is now common when it comes to designing interiors. It’s also applicable to furniture and cabinets.

Kao Wen-ting
Taipei Dep’t of Urban Development
The hardest place to design is kitchen space because items up top are hard to reach. We therefore designed these moveable racks which make it easier to grab items.

Taipei currently has 83 public housing rental units that were built using the concept of universal design.

Dan Tang
Foundation of Universal Design Education
For example this door used to be very heavy to the push. Now I can use just one finger and lightly push it open. Making items lightweight is one concept of universal design.

Many people spend their savings to buy a house which is typically used for decades, covering all phases of life, ranging from child rearing to pregnancy and old age. The home must accommodate everything from strollers to wheelchairs. All of these considerations should be taken into account when building a new residence.

Dan Tang 
Foundation of Universal Design Education
A button like this should be placed in an area that makes it easily accessible to everyone. Even more special is the expanded area. Rather than just using one finger, I can press it with my arm. This small change uses universal design to make people’s lives more convenient.

From changing the way designers think to creating barrier-free environments for Taiwan’s aging society, universal design is quickly becoming a reality and making life more convenient.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=3E7D21B277AFD78AEC8590B896067960

The Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival is now in its fifth year. Last night, a special outdoor concert was held in front of the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. The concert commemorated the 228 Incident, as the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra performed with 4 choral groups along with Italian trumpet virtuoso, Andrea Giuffredi.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=1BC835C0D43937CD655B986A128D3E55

With the benefit of excellent weather this weekend, the Taoyuan County Government and the Taiwan Cyclist Federation sponsored a 42.9 km cycling trip on the Northern Cross-Island Highway. 

All ages participated in this event, including the eldest cyclist who was 73 years-old. Cyclists who completed the whole route and arrived at the La-la-shan Visitor Information Center were given a special certificate showing they completed the difficult course. 

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=400C1B72CC9B1B84D2450A86B515D1CF

Today, both expert and amateur dancers participated in a warm-up competition for the World Dance Council’s Ballroom Dance Taipei Open which begins on Feb. 28. Even a few young contestants participated such as this brother and sister pair who were just three and four years old.

This brother and sister pair are just three and four years old, appearing much shorter than their competitors, though they are quite charming and have become the focus of many in the audience.

The professional category had 16 pairs of dancers competing, each pair demonstrating a sexy and nimble dance style.

Yang Rong-jye
Dancer
It’s such a beautiful stage, and the feeling is really great as it will give me confidence when I perform, making me feel young again.

Jane Chen
Taiwan International Dance Sport 
A (total) of nearly 400 pairs of dancers will participate in the Asian Tour Taipei Open which begins on Feb. 28. This is a warm-up competition, giving all of the dancers an opportunity to improve. 

Today’s competition is just a small taste of what will occur at the main event which brings 142 pairs of foreign competitors from 31 different countries, becoming the biggest and grandest ballroom dance competition in Taiwan.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=77D5BDE75C3F2F4AC8C1DE4003833D83

Kaohsiung recently held a robot competition that featured a number of challenges associated with emergency response to natural disasters. For example, robots were given the task of breaking through barricades and performing other critical functions which tested each team’s creativity and programming ability.

The playing field upon which these robots are competing mimics the scene from a natural disaster. Students are asked to design a robot that can maneuver this dangerous course which includes multiple obstacles. And ultimately, arriving at a designated finish line within a certain amount of time.

The teams of students that are able to complete this task within an allotted time are quite happy, though a few teams are unable to overcome difficult obstacles. 

This robot competition is jointly hosted by the Kaohsiung City Government Department of Education and the National Science and Technology Museum along with other groups under the general theme of disaster response. 

Hsu Zheng-he
Judge 
One goal is how to respond to disasters, and how to prevent disasters as well. 

Another part of the competition is moving these building blocks, discovering which team can place the most yellow building blocks into their basket. Another test is this hanging horizontal bar, as the team that works the best together, as well as writes the best program, and achieves the top score is the winner. 

Our strategy and preparation before the event was very good so we were able to get the top score. 

The top team in this competition also wins the right to represent Taiwan in an international competition in the United States or Australia.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=422BDA51D8683388C9EAF57F76875A8D

A new installation at the Taitung Art Museum offers visitors a chance to enter what appears to be a moving pigeon house. Inside the house is devoid of pigeons and looks more like a human inhabitance, conveying the designer’s conception of a longing to fly free. 

From the exterior this wooden building looks like a pigeon house. Located on the end of a green belt outside Taitung Art Museum, it is small but well furnished. Inside there is a kitchen and bathtub, and most astonishing are the wheels underneath. These bring a freedom of movement that makes it possible to bring the home on trips.

Hsiao Yu-chih
Shih Chieh University
My idea was to bring people back to the fundamentals of architecture. Or you could say I wanted to show them a more intrinsic structure. In fact, architecture is something you experience with the five senses.

The building was designed by Hsiao Yu-chih, a professor in the Architecture Department of Shih Chieh University. It acts as a stage standing in a green field where structure, activity and people interact. The county’s culture director described the meaning behind the design.

Liu Jheng
Taitung Cultural Affairs Dep’t
It symbolizes a pigeon-free pigeon house because when pigeons fly away they are free. When we are in a building, we are like a pigeon that longs to fly freely away. We can fly out of the building and away from this world to travel in another place.

There are few large-scale art installations in Taitung, making the introduction of this unusual building a popular topic of discussion.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=DE3E22FBAF49453C67C1C90D490E6E01

Students from National Nantou Senior High School are world champions in the 560-kilogram men’s category of the World Indoor Tug of War Championship. While competing in Ireland over the weekend the boys beat a team from England to take gold. 

hese images are from 2012. The Taiwan team was disqualified from competition for having applied cleaning solution to the soles of their shoes. A couple days ago, the team returned with a vengeance.

Standing between Taiwan and gold in the men’s 560-kilogram category in the World Indoor Tug of War Championship was England. The Taiwanese team stuck in to prevent the advance of its strong opponent. When England seemed on the verge of surrender a burst of energy from the Taiwan side led to victory.

When the news reached National Nantou Senior High School, the athletes’ classmates were delighted.

Chiu Ming-huang
Nantou Senior High School
To become accustomed to cold weather, they trained together on Hehuan Mountain. The calluses each team member developed on his hands also helped beat the cold.

The hard work this team put in has been rewarded with world championship gold.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=C6084B589154E04D2C08685B19D22746

A press conference was held today ahead of Thursday’s theatrical release of the local baseball drama “Kano.” Two Japanese films stars portraying an on-screen couple, Masatoshi Nagase and Maki Sakai, were present. 

資料來源：

A new smart bracelet will make it easier to find and identify lost elderly and disabled people. The Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly cooperated with a local telecom to create the technology, which reveals information such as emergency contact numbers after just a quick scan using a smart phone. 

In the past, when elderly people disappeared, the only information that could be used to retrieve them included the clothes they were wearing and their hairstyles. This information often wasn’t enough to bring them back.

Now, as long as an elderly person wears this special smart bracelet, he or she can be identified by someone with a smart phone. Scanning the bracelet reveals information such as phone numbers of family members and the address of their residence. The new technology impressed artist Ann Lang, whose father suffers from dementia.

The telecom company that contributed to the bracelet says by utilizing GPS tracking, the bracelet will dramatically increase the recovery rate of lost elderly people.

James Cheng
Telecom Employee
Without this bracelet, the recovery rate for lost elderly people was about 60 percent. If they wear this bracelet then I believe that the recovery rate will be near 100 percent. 

The smart bracelet is expected to be officially launched this week, with 4,000 being issued to Taipei, New Taipei and Pingtung residents. Those suffering from dementia or people with disability cards can apply for a free bracelet.

資料來源：

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=AB293BD1B15F489CE9F8C0177DB3F9E3