Taiwan Tonight - Taiwan News | Jul. 23, 2026

A triceratops welcomes visitors by the roadside, along a Dilophosaurus and a ferocious T-Rex flanked by a Velociraptor. This entire theme park has transformed into a Jurassic world. Visitors can find 18 enormous animatronic dinosaurs throughout this amusement park on Kaohsiung's Guanyin Mountain, which is normally styled after ancient Greece. The theme aims to attract families looking for a summer vacation spot. You can hear the roars of dinosaurs all around and they even move. They're all super lifelike. The dinosaurs are humongous. They really seem real. The dinosaurs are huge. It's my first time bringing my kids here. They seem really happy. We have a little archaeologist activity and dinosaur feeding shows and our hotel also offers dinosaur themed rooms. Integrating the theme park, hotel and restaurants creates a one-stop tourism ecosystem, allowing visitors to immerse in the theme while doing everything from water-based activities to watching performances, dining and shopping. At our volcano stage, we're featuring a water spraying dinosaur and more. For Halloween, we'll have dinosaur skeletons and for Christmas, we'll have a snowflake party and other activities to enjoy the snow alongside the dinos. These lifelike dinosaurs aren't just a backdrop to the park's rides. They'll also be a part of events for major holidays. Throughout the rest of the year, visitors can watch as these dinos invade ancient Greece. Wearing a crisp white shirt and overalls topped with a stylish newsboy cap, New Taipei City Mayor Hou Youyi looks like he's from the old mining days as he carries a hand lantern through the narrow alleys of Jiufen. Huge red lanterns hang along the way, glittering under the dazzling mountain skies. The mayor is here to promote this year's Jiufen Red Lantern Festival. Jiufen has always been rich in history, spectacular views and small town charm. It's also the most famous of the mining towns along our Gold Coast. This place has inherently unique surroundings, along with a willingness by the people to contribute and sacrifice for its sake. The month-long festival is also welcoming the Pelee Puppet Theatre for the first time. Mayor Hou took the chance to banter on stage with one of the characters. In front of Jiufen Elementary, a sea of red lanterns forms a welcome corridor, while over at Jingguashi's Golden Waterfall, visitors can enjoy a light show running daily from 6.30 to 10pm. Now there are even more stunning sights to see while getting lost down Jiufen's winding alleys. Travellers hold their passports ready to go abroad on vacation. Most people won't take a second look at what the immigration officer stamped inside. But if you look closely, you'll find the entry and exit stamps are actually different shapes. When the National Immigration Agency redesigned the stamp in 2012, they kept some elements the same, but they also invited renowned calligrapher Dong Yangzi to write the characters. The exit stamp is round to symbolise a perfect and complete journey, while the entry stamp is the octagonal bagua to represent warding off evil and bringing good fortune. If you look carefully at the character they both share, you'll find that the calligrapher added an extra dot to the entry stamp. I was a bit confused when I first noticed that the one character in the entry stamp has an extra dot. How could she have made a mistake? But as I thought about it, I realised the artist intended it as a wish to bring more travellers to Taiwan. The second character in the entry stamp has an extra dot on the left side. It's not a mistake, it represents a wish that more people will come and boost Taiwan's tourism. There's so much to these stamps and that's not all. They are also a kind of anti-forgery measure. Making a minor redesign also helps to prevent human traffic in syndicates from forging our stamps. But as the automatic gates are getting more use, the stamps aren't being used as often. The stamp that should be replaced every 5 years has now been in use for 8. The next time you go abroad, consider going through the manual inspection lane to see the stamp for yourself. A child who would not sit down disrupted the tail end of a recent flight from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung. The flight was getting ready for landing in Taiwan when the pilot requested air traffic control to delay landing as the child was not seated properly. The flight did an extra circle and ultimately landed safely. But the incident has gone viral online with people weighing in on what they have done if they had been passengers on the plane. Let's hear more. I have been informed that there is a child who is not seated, which means we cannot proceed with landing. I would like to request a go around. I would maybe hold the kid down. Children's ears often hurt during landing. After a certain age, it's very hard to keep them seated alone and with the seat belt fastened. I think you should try to soothe the kid as much as possible. You shouldn't disrupt all the other passengers on the plane. In this instance, they were at quite a high altitude before landing, so they had the time. The pilot requested permission from air traffic control to circle around to handle the situation. Once all the passengers, including the child, were safely seated, the pilot then continued with the landing. Everything they did was in accordance with standard operating procedures. A retired pilot says that the aircraft's pilot was following established rules. He also urged travelers to heed all instructions from flight attendants to ensure a safe journey. Everything appears as normal initially, but once the black car turns right, the back left door swings open and a child falls out straight onto the asphalt. Even in slow-mo, it looks awfully painful. The car immediately hits the brakes after noticing the young passenger rolling out of the vehicle. The kid's parents get off the car and bring the kid back on board. Fortunately, traffic wasn't too heavy or it could have been a tragedy. The incident happened at five on Wednesday afternoon near a preschool on Chuiyang Road in Jiayi. Other motorists were left staring in shock. Perhaps the door wasn't closed properly or the parents didn't activate the child safety lock. Whatever the reason, the kid ended up flying out of the vehicle on a road that's usually packed with cars and buses. That was a close one. Children under 12 not sitting in child safety seats or who are not wearing seat belts can cause the driver to face fines of between 1,500 and 3,000 NT. Carelessness comes at a price and even then, most cars have child safety locks. If you have kids and worry that they might open the car door, you can just press the child safety lock to prevent any fly outs. These locks that open from the outside are a must. These safety locks can usually be found in the back doors. Once they are activated, the doors can only be opened from the outside. That way, even if kids accidentally open the handle, they will stay safe inside the car. The incident in Jiayi ended with a child on the floor in the middle of the road. But fortunately, it was nothing worse than a scare. Give way to ambulances. You can be a life-saving hero too. Surely, most drivers know that. But apparently, not everyone has got the memo. An ambulance driver in Kaohsiung recounted a recent incident that almost sent him over the edge in his anger. The ambulance was carrying a newborn baby to the ICU at the hospital at top speed when their path was blocked by two cars at a traffic light. Though one car ended moving to the side after several long seconds, the other did not budge. Let's hear from the ambulance driver. The driver was a middle-aged man. I could see through the window. He kept looking at me on the rearview mirror. I honked, but he kept ignoring me. I was so mad. We had a young baby on board. Our birth rate is already so low, even lower than our death rate. I was furious. No matter what, you should always give way to an ambulance. The baby at the back was barely 20 days old and was being taken from the postpartum care center to the intensive care unit. Four minutes into the ambulance ride, oxygen deprivation was already setting in, making the rush to the hospital even more critical. Fortunately, even despite the inconsiderate drivers, the baby made it safely to the hospital. Police say the drivers of both cars could be slapped with fines of up to 30,000 NT, get their license revoked, and their license plates suspended for six months. And China is once again trying to intimidate people for being friendly to Taiwan. This time, the target is Taiwan International Documentary Festival, which kicked off its eighth edition in Bangkok on Wednesday. The Thai organizer of the festival told a local media outlet that Chinese officials had been making threatening phone calls to the cinemas. What's more, the officials even headed to the cinemas in person to exert pressure. They also demanded organizers to remove the logo of Taiwan's Ministry of Culture from all promotional materials, saying it made them uncomfortable. But China's attempt to suppress Taiwan was fertile. Thailand organizer refused to give in, telling them that they should resolve their problems through regular diplomatic channels. Taiwan's Minister of Culture, Li Yuan, who is currently in Thailand, said that China was worried about Taiwan's embrace of culture A textbook on human anatomy opened at his side. This young artist quickly begins sketching body parts with a practiced hand. He shows clear mastery of shading to create incredibly lifelike muscle tendons. Next to the sketches, he annotates their scientific names in Chinese. These could easily be the notes of a medical professional. But the artist actually just finished sixth grade. After he was done with his homework, he'd come home from school and just want to play video games, especially since he just finished elementary school. We didn't want him to be on screens all the time. Worried that their son would be glued to screens the entire summer vacation, Hu Junxiang's father encouraged him to draw, promising 30 NT for every completed sketch. To their astonishment, the drawings he got back were impressive. His mother posted a few online, racking up 110,000 likes in just one day. I'm a firefighter, so I have some textbooks on anatomy. He would sometimes pick them up to flip through. He developed an interest in the drawings, then started copying them himself. Without knowing it, flipping through his father's textbooks and doodling as a kid fueled a passion for anatomical drawing. Since the start of summer vacation, he's made 16 drawings for an allowance of 480 NT. When he grows up, Hu Junxiang hopes to keep following his passion toward a career in medicine. The YouTuber Puff, known for eating on her channel, is taking on this enormous seafood platter with lobster, squid, shrimp and more. Even she said it's a lot. There's also this huge Boston cream pie and bowl of shaved ice. All on offer at the 2026 Qijin Kite Festival. The limited edition food is the best part of the Qijin Kite Festival because they're all gigantic. They're also delicious. Shops in Xiziwan are also offering discounts for the event. On these hot summer days, nothing beats an icy treat like this handmade gelato with seasonal fruit. Even the drinks are works of art. The food enclaved next to the Gushan Ferry Pier also has lots of specials. Fried pork cutlet is placed gently on a bed of rice, then drenched in curry for the most satisfying of meals. Ramen, gyoza, drink shops, they're all partnering with the festival. For this event, beyond the entire Qijin area, we've also brought in the surrounding neighborhoods of Qijin, Yancheng, Hamasen, Shaochuantou and Xiziwan. Through holding events like this, we hope to draw tourists to Kaohsiung's most beautiful bay. This year's festival is going big in every way, including with the nationwide debut of two giant 35-meter whale kites. By bringing in the best Xiziwan has to offer, the city hopes visitors will use public transit to travel between Qijin and Gushan, enjoying giant kites and giant bites along the way.