A quick guide to the meaning of bus names and numbers in Taipei

A quick guide to the meaning of bus names and numbers in Taipei

2024-07-29

There are hundreds of bus routes in Greater Taipei. But did you know that the names and numbers of those routes are full of hidden information? Most people don’t think about the meaning of the words and numbers in their buses. But if you pay attention, you might start to notice the pattern. Or you could just keep watching and get up to speed with our inside guide…

Commuters hop onto a bus in Greater Taipei. But have they paid any attention to the words beside the bus numbers, saying, “red,” “green,” “blue” and “brown?”

In these vox pops, most bus users have no idea what the colors mean.

Li Yu-han
FTV reporter
It’s a new trick for Taipei buses! We’re all familiar with buses having a number. Now some buses have a color with their numbers, which means they are a shuttle bus for the MRT line.

And there’s more. A three-digit number starting with 1 is a leisure bus. What about a number starting with 2? There are two zones for this bus route. And starting with 3 means three zones. But starting with 5? Well, that’s all one zone! Starting with 8 means New Taipei bus, while 9 will go over the highway or expressway. Starting with 0 is for buses on the “circle line” around Taipei Main Station, but the only 0 routes remaining are 0 East and 0 South.

Then there’s the codes for minibuses. An S indicates a minibus for mountainous regions, while an F means a free community bus in New Taipei, and M is a city minibus. Almost every bus has clues to its identity hidden in its name. So now you know!

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

雙北公車冷知識! 數字.顏色.英文字母有玄機

2024-07-29

雙北市的公車路線好幾百條，但您可能不知道，路線名稱藏著許多玄機，像是0開頭是台北車站的「環狀公車」，2開頭是代表「兩段票收費」，9則是會經過高速公路，而許多公車路線也用顏色來當開頭，到底代表甚麼意思，跟著鏡頭一起來解密！

大台北通勤民眾來來往往，但公車族有注意過，這些顏色開頭，以紅、綠、藍、棕為編碼的車次，代表什麼意義嗎?

實際街訪，多半眾都不太清楚顏色意義，但也都能猜出來。

[[民視記者李豫翰]]
“台北市公車學問大不同，除了一般常見的數字編碼公車之外，還有以顏色開頭的公車，代表他是捷運的接駁公車。”

另外像是，三位數像1開頭，代表休閒公車，2開頭則是兩段票收費，相對三段票的就是3字頭，5開頭則是一段票收費。開頭是8字則是新北市公車，9開頭是經過高速公路、快速道路，而0字頭則是行駛台北車站附近的「環狀路線」，但只剩下0東跟0南路線。

還有像是小，S字開頭代表山區小型公車，F開頭代表新北市免費社區巴士，還有M是市民小巴，公車數字、字母都有依據，冷知識大解密。

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Hsiao Bi-khim
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We face significant challenges in all of these areas, particularly the geopolitical situation where Beijing is aggressively expanding their military presence. So your presence here is at a very important moment.

Forty-eight cross-party lawmakers from 23 countries are here to attend IPAC’s annual summit. They are the largest parliamentary delegation ever to visit Taiwan.

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IPAC, or the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, will hold its annual summit in Taiwan for the first time. The event opens on Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Taipei.

This year’s summit will focus on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. There will be special Taiwan forum, during which President Lai Ching-te will give a speech.

According to the Associated Press, eight lawmakers from at least five countries, including Colombia and Slovakia, faced Chinese pressure to not attend the summit. They said they received calls and emails from Chinese embassy officials. Some found that their party leadership had been contacted. But the pressure campaign backfired: One Bosnian lawmaker said it only “steeled her determination” to go to Taiwan.

Founded in 2020, IPAC has lawmakers from dozens of countries and the European Parliament. It seeks to safeguard democracy against the Chinese threat. It also promotes legislation to challenge China’s political and economic influence.

Wang Ting-yu
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IPAC is a global alliance of lawmakers that promotes human rights, freedom, and democracy. Today, China poses a threat to the freedom, democracy, and normal international relations of other countries.

Defying Chinese pressure, IPAC’s lawmakers departed for Taipei, standing united to defend democracy.

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Lai to request record defense budget for 2025: sources

Details are out on President Lai Ching-te’s first budget proposal since taking office. The fiscal year 2025 proposal features a record-high defense budget, according to sources familiar with the matter. The amount will be around NT$460 billion, the most ever requested. Factoring in special budgets and other supplementary funds, total military expenditures are expected to reach NT$630 billion, reflecting a 5% yearly increase.

Despite a typhoon, the first-ever “unscripted” Han Kuang exercises came to a successful close last Friday.

And after staying away for four days amid the storm, the PLA resumed its harassment of Taiwan last Sunday. Thirty-four aircraft and vessels were detected near the island, with 13 planes crossing the strait’s median line.

Amid China’s gray-zone warfare, the Lai administration has requested a record-high budget for defense.

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To cope with the threat of China’s growing strength and expansionism, Taiwan has continually increased its defense budget over the past few years. To some extent, doing so is about declaring to the world that we are committed to indigenous defense. It’s to show that we are determined to defend ourselves.

Since the Tsai administration, Taiwan’s military spending has increased each year, going from NT$349.7 billion in 2016 to NT$355.7 billion in 2017, and surpassing NT$400 billion in 2020. In 2023, spending soared to NT$580.3 billion. Military spending is expected to surge again to NT$630 billion this year, taking its GDP percentage from 2% to 2.6%. But even so, a scholar says there’s still plenty of room to expand expenditures.

Su Tzu-yun
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Compared to other vulnerable nations like Israel, Singapore, and South Korea, our defense spending is on the low side. A reasonable defense budget should target 3% of the GDP. This would give our professional staff at the defense ministry a more stable and long-term financial plan.

The scholar called on the government to further boost spending, in order to ensure Taiwan’s national security.

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Prescription reform to launch in October for dentist clinics

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A woman hands over her prescription but leaves the pharmacy empty-handed. That’s because her prescription is labeled “Do Not Substitute,” meaning that the drug listed can’t be replaced with equivalent medications. To save patients a trip in vain, the National Health Insurance Administration will require dentists to explain their reasoning for not allowing substitutes, starting in October. If no reason is provided, the pharmacy will be permitted to dispense generics.

Chiang Hsi-jen
Taiwan Dental Association
A cancer patient who has undergone surgery may need specific drugs. So in that kind of scenario, it might not possible to substitute with another drug. But most prescriptions written by clinics are for anti-inflammatory drugs or pain relievers, which can usually be substituted.

Member of public
If the effect of the drugs is the same, I think it should be OK.

It remains to be seen whether the policy can work for chronic patients, who must take medications regularly. In the policy’s second phase, which starts next April, dental prescriptions may no longer list brand names, only active ingredients.

Liu Lin-yi
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The policy allows for more flexibility in prescriptions. It can also make it more likely that patients follow doctors’ orders, and reduce the likelihood that they interrupt the treatment, mitigating potential health risks. So this initial trial will roll out for 6,900 dental clinics around Taiwan.

The NHIA hopes the policy will change public attitudes and reduce health risks. If the dental clinic trial is successful, the policy may be expanded to other clinics and hospitals.

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Looking across a large area of farmland, one can see the sudden destruction of the farmers’ hard work, with vegetable leaves and roots scattered and rotten after the heavy rain.

Farmer
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Farmer
Everyone has lost so much. I myself have lost tens of thousands of NT.

Zihguan District in Kaohsiung has more than 250 hectares of vegetable fields. It mainly grows leafy greens such as water spinach and bok choy, as well as heat-resistant vegetables such as winter melon and loofah. It is one of the main vegetable supply and distribution centers in Southern Taiwan, with a daily output of about 200,000 tons. In the wake of the damage from Typhoon Gaemi, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai visited Zihguan District early Monday morning.

Chen Chi-mai
Kaohsiung mayor
We will request that subsidies from the Ministry of Agriculture be handled with priority, leniency and speed, so that our farmers can resume production as soon as possible.

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Liu Chen-hua
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It will take about a month for leafy greens to be replanted and harvested in Zihguan District. The Kaohsiung City Government says it will work with the central government and hopes to help farmers complete post-disaster recovery as soon as possible.

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A sedan chair for a deity bounces down a busy street as part of a temple festival.

Firecrackers are set off to the sound of drums and cymbals. These kids are having great fun. Look closely, and everything from the god’s sedan to the ritual offering tables and the altar seem to be under a magnifying glass.

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All the gods, military deities and other temple tools are smaller than your hand. Open up the god’s sedan and you find a tiny lamp inside. Hsiao Cheng-hou is a seventh grader and has always loved temple festivals. Now he’s set his hand to creating his own tiny temples.

His meticulous work makes even the offerings on the altar look just like the real thing. These detailed models are all made in Hsiao’s secret workshop.

It’s on the top floor of the home. Here he measures out each material to the millimeter, and saws up his own wood.

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I started watching temple festivals when I was little, and I thought it would be fun to do this. I’ve been doing it throughout the summer vacation, gradually learning things, and the more I do it the more I love it.

Hsiao is completely self-taught, and relies on his careful observation of the festivals around him. He gets his materials online or orders them at bookstores. Sometimes he’s lost in the project for an entire day.

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This is handpainted. It took me more than a week.

Hsiao often brings the models out to play with friends. They set out a big table and act out the whole festival in miniature. A collector has already bought some of his miniatures. With his extensive knowledge of temple culture, and his love for the art, Hsiao knows how to make the most of his summer.

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Cold noodles must be preserved properly to prevent bacteria

It’s refreshing to have cold noodles when the weather is so hot, but food safetycan be a concern. Customers often have an upset stomach after eating them, even at famous spots. There’s one cold noodle shop in Taipei that uses three fridges set at different temperatures to make sure their ingredients stay fresh. Doctors advise that it’s best to finish cold noodles in one sitting and separate the sauce and noodles when putting them in the fridge.

These cold noodles with sesame sauce may look simple, but the shop uses three fridges to maintain the ingredients’ quality and ensure food safety.

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Most traditional cold noodle shops will put the noodles and sauce in a pot and serve from that. But it’s easy for bacteria to grow during this process when the weather is hot. When we prepare the noodles, we refrigerate the sauce in separate bottles, taking out only as much as we need. The preserved eggs we are about to use are first put in a cold fridge, next to the fridge for noodles. We move them to the fridge in front when needed.

The three fridges are kept at different temperatures, one to preserve food, then another to prepare it for use, and the last out front for making orders. The owner puts the noodles in paper bowls, separates the sauce into individual packets, and puts the cucumber slices into a container. Then everything is put in the fridge to prevent bacteria growth.

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Not only do we make this for customers, but we also eat it ourselves, so it’s important that it’s safe. We always ask customers when they plan to eat and how far they have to walk. If they have to walk too far in the heat, we will advise them not to buy it because it may go bad.

Bacteria can increase by over 100 times if cold noodles are left at room temperature for three to four hours. Unfinished cold noodles should be put in the fridge in an airtight container or bag. As humidity is key to bacteria growth, doctors say the noodles and sauce should be stored separately and finished the next day.

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The problem with cold noodles is that they must be left out to cool after being cooked. Bacteria grows easiest in food at 5 to 60 degrees. If left out for two to four hours, the bacteria growth could be enough to cause food poisoning. It’s best to finish the meal within two hours or put it in the fridge to preserve it.

It’s refreshing to eat cold noodles in the summer, but pay attention to food safety to stay healthy.

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