Taiwan Tonight - Formosa English News | Oct. 29, 2026

The big day for foodies in Changhua is just around the corner with the culinary extravaganza that is the annual Lugang Luxi banquet. Every year in late November, hundreds of diners gather to enjoy local dishes carefully crafted in traditional Taiwanese Bando style. This year, to avoid clashing with election day, the food fest will take place on November 7th and 8th. Tickets went on sale at eight o'clock on Thursday morning with hordes rushing to get their hands on them via the internet and even via fax. Let's hear more. The dishes look very good, and despite inflation, prices haven't gone up. There are five starters, ten mains, and four desserts. Lu Gang's local rice noodles and our exquisite tableware will be part of the banquet. The menu is packed with lavish dishes such as mullet roll, crispy prawns cooked in the local style, and mullet and garlic. There are also crowd-pleasers such as miso paste and tofu skin rolls. The big draw is the low price at just 4,500 NT for a total of 19 dishes. And you won't Just leave with your belly full. You can also go home with your hands full of. Lugang's famous rice noodles and a sophisticated set of tableware to remember the event by. It's no wonder that everyone was so eager to score a seat. A pun is at the center of a fresh controversy in the Kaohsiung mayoral race. KMT candidate Ke Zhi'en was asked on a radio show on Wednesday what score she would give current mayor Chen Qimai. Referring to herself as a strict teacher, Ke said she doesn't easily hand out a 90%. She ended up settling for 87%. That particular score caused an uproar from the DPP, as 87 is commonly used online as a pun for idiot due to its similar pronunciation in Taiwanese. Let's hear more. A lot of people agree that assigning the number 87 to the mayor is disrespectful. He's been working night and day for Kaohsiung, and that deserves high praise from everyone. The election is the real way to help political figures score points. When it comes to giving scores to politicians, the votes are what counts. Ke Zhi'en and Chen Qimai are taking the same exam. In her case, she's retaking it after her first try four years ago. In the end, the electorate decides who to pick with their votes. The passing score for graduate students is 70, while 90 is Teacher Ke's high standard. The passing grade for master students is 70%, and 90% is a really high grade for Professor Ke Zhi'en. As for Chen Qimai's comments about sitting the exam again, we are grateful for his encouragement. And a mock test for the two candidates is just around the corner as the debate for the Kaohsiung mayoral race is scheduled for Friday evening. The DPP candidate says his voice has gone hoarse recently due to all the practice he's been doing ahead of the debate. He also led on that he plans to ask Ke why she voted in favor of a government expenditure act that he says was disadvantageous to Kaohsiung. Meanwhile, Ke did not schedule any public events on Wednesday, presumably because she was busy practicing with her team. Santa Claus became a casualty of a traffic accident involving three vehicles in Changhua's Puxing Township. Of course, it wasn't the real Santa, but a life-size Santa decoration that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The crash happened when the bus driver started feeling dizzy behind the wheel and rammed his bus into a truck that was parked on the side of the road. The truck then hit a car before wreaking havoc in an area with personal items from residents strewn the scene. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured. A bus rams itself head-on against a truck parked at the side of the road, which is pushed forward to crash against another car before barging towards a residential building. The chaos and destruction even included a Santa decoration that ended up as a casualty of the crash trapped under the truck. Maybe the car is not working. Maybe the truck wasn't parked fully. The driver wasn't on the truck. He had gone across the street for a delivery. Then the bus came crashing into it. I freaked out when I saw the Santa under the truck. I thought it was a real person. The crash happened on Wednesday afternoon. The driver of the bus was Mr. Wei in his 60s. He was born in 1960s. He was driving along Yuanlu Road in Puxin when he started feeling dizzy. A miscalculated turn caused him to lose control of the vehicle. The driver was feeling unwell, so as he drove by, he accidentally crashed into a vehicle parked on the side of the road. Thank The driver of the bus and the passenger sustained scratches. you very The driver tested negative for alcohol, so we're ruling out a DUI. The driver banged his head against the windshield of the bus much for and sustained minor injuries. Fortunately, it was nothing severe. having me For the passengers, it was also mostly just a scare. Though one was sent to hospital for a checkup. on the Sadly, the Santa Claus ornament will not make it to this year's Christmas. show. Taoyuan and Japan's Narita City celebrated the 10th anniversary of their alliance by holding a children's art exhibition from both cities. On Wednesday, the program kicked off with an awards ceremony and a subsequent exhibition showcasing the winning artworks and calligraphy, with special themes showing the charm of Taoyuan and Narita. Taoyuan Mayor Zhang Shanzheng personally handed out the awards, and Narita Mayor Koizumi Katsunari delivered a message in a video. The event highlighted the decade-long friendship and exchanges between the two cities. Taoyuan Elementary School's student music band delivered an engaging performance at the opening of Taoyuan and Narita's 10th friendship anniversary. On Wednesday, the memorial exhibition kicked off with a ceremony where Taoyuan Mayor Chang Shan Cheng personally handed out awards for the winning children's artwork. Narita's Mayor Koizumi Kazunari also recorded a video message for the celebration. For more Painting and calligraphy transcend the barriers of language and distance and have the power to connect people's hearts. information, I hope that this exchange can deepen Taoyuan and Narita's friendship. Despite the distance between both cities, arts and calligraphy seemed to bring them closer. visit The children's artwork depicted their imagination of the rich scenery of the cities, www.fema.org and even the airport made an appearance. Visitors could see the charm of Narita and the years of friendship between the cities. Over the last 10 years, our exchanges have been very frequent. This summer, we had a baseball team, a children's baseball team, that went to Narita for a competition. A while ago, we also had a design exhibition in Taiwan where people from Narita also came to visit. This event will be an unforgettable experience for the children. Narita Mayor Koizumi hopes that the children can visit the city in person and experience the city's landscape. Taiwan's third most valuable company, Delta Electronics, had a rough day on the market on Thursday. The company posted solid third-quarter revenue at $197 billion NT, an increase of 30% year-on-year. But amid accumulated inventory and inventory write-downs, the gross margin slid to 34%, and profit after tax dropped by more than 6% from the previous quarter. The disappointing figures triggered a sell-off that sent shares plunging by as much as 7% during the trading session, and Delta's market cap sank below 4 trillion NT. Losses narrowed toward the end of the trading session, but ultimately closed down 4.52 percent at 1,480 NT per share. Delta came out to address concerns, stressing that inventory write-downs were purely accounting adjustments and could be reversed as goods are being shipped. Revenue from AI data center related businesses, including power supplies and liquid cooling systems, now accounts for nearly half of the company's total revenue. The company also projects global data center capital expenditure to reach between 1.2 and 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2027. With major capacity expansions worldwide and investments in next-gen power solutions and fuel cells, Delta is looking to protect profitability and build momentum for its next phase of growth amid the AI boom. Walking through the streets of Prague's Old Town Square, the classic architecture unfolds everywhere you look. Up ahead, the famous astronomical clock puts on its hourly show. But if you want to know more about its history, you'll need a guide. Then, which sign the moon is in, which sign the stars are in, So it is actually a zodiac sign. Charlene Chen has accumulated a deep knowledge of the city's history over her 10 years of living in Prague. In 2022, she founded a travel agency with her friend Naomi Gan with the goal of supporting her fellow Taiwanese expats. At the time, right after the pandemic, we felt like we wanted to create a kind of hub for students and Taiwanese people to gather. Maybe they are freelancers or teachers working at language schools. We want to create more opportunities for Taiwanese to work together. We thought about creating more job opportunities for Taiwanese people, allowing more chances to come to Europe, especially this magical country of Czechia. We can offer a sense of familiarity. The co-founders provide locally based expats with part-time workers as tour guides to boost their income while sharing the beauty of their adoptive home. They mostly offer in-depth tours for individual travelers coming on newly launched direct flight routes. Elderly travelers especially enjoy the personalized storytelling approach. My parents are worried that they can't understand English. Older folks often worry about not understanding English while they're traveling. But if their children find a guide who speaks Chinese and is also Taiwanese, it makes them so much happier. This place used to only have Chinese islanders. Before, all the Chinese language guides here were from China. Why did it have to only be them? Why not have Taiwanese guides? And why only have guides for big tour groups, not for individual travelers? Over in Poland, there's another Taiwanese entrepreneur seeking to set down roots one bite at a time. Freshly baked bread sits on display, just like at a traditional Taiwanese bakery. This is Warsaw's first Taiwanese restaurant. The owner invited a baker from Taiwan all the way to Poland to recreate the most authentic flavors. Thank you. Taiwanese-style butter and cream actually suit the Polish taste quite closely. For the scallion bread, we used black pepper to bring out the flavor. Many of my friends said there are a lot of Taiwanese and Chinese people in Warsaw and urged us to come here. Utilizing his family connections in Poland, Lee has successfully turned the upstart venture into a thriving family business. Today they enjoy a stellar reputation, Former Minister Lin Chao-long came to visit while in town, and even the Deputy Mayor from a nearby city was blown away by the bubble tea. It's really good. It's sweet, I love it. It's really good It's sweet, I love it In my opinion, the Polish are some of the friendliest people in Europe. Although politically they may seem to be xenophobic, the people are extremely accepting of foreigners. Whether working to support their fellow expats or winning over palates with the flavors of home, these hardworking entrepreneurs are showing Europe the best that Taiwan has to offer. Oh no! A traveller spilled water on the laptop! This can be disastrous for people trying to stay connected and productive. Thankfully, this new hardware is water resistant. This laptop is only one centimeter thick and weighs just 1.2 kilograms, but it can withstand pressure of up to 50 kilograms. It was designed specifically for business travelers. The trouble is... It combines cloud computing and AI, allowing users to switch seamlessly between cloud-based and on-device functions for business use. This new business laptop is equipped with Intel's latest 18A process node with AI features that can summarize meetings and locate files with a single click. But this new upgraded laptop comes with a hefty price tag. The rising costs of hardware drove up prices in the first half of this year, but overall demand still grew by nearly 20%. There will probably be some more modest price increases of around 10% next year. But demand outweighs the impact of these price increases, so I think demand should still be pretty strong next year. As chips become more advanced, research, development, and manufacturing costs remain high. Meanwhile, AI data centers are taking up large amounts of memory, CPU, and GPU supplies. This leaves fewer components available for consumer electronics and lower-end products. Putting the laptop market under pressure from both rising prices and supply shortages. Thank you. For consumer laptops, prices are expected to rise by around 10-20% next year, which is quite steep compared with previous years. Next year will be a period of consolidation for AI development, so demand for AI-related components such as DRAM will not be as extreme as it has been this year. Prices of premium and AI-powered laptops are expected to remain high next year, putting consumers' budgets to the test.