Netizens praise village chief in Guangfu for keeping residents safe

Netizens praise village chief in Guangfu for keeping residents safe

2025-09-29

The flash flood that hit Guangfu Township spared one community Dama Village, thanks to the local leader. He began evacuating more than 1,000 local residents two days before the incident, before even receiving an official evacuation notice. On the day of the flooding, he checked every household to make sure everyone was safe. Let’s meet this community hero.
　
At lunch time, Dama Village chief, Wang Tzu-an greets local residents while his team hands out lunchboxes from the Agriculture and Food Agency.

Wang opened up his home to deliver bento boxes to flash flood survivors and volunteers. Even before the flood, Wang was already looking out for locals.

Resident
Dama Village
We’re so thankful for him. Before the flooding he made a broadcast from the community center asking us to evacuate.

The day of the flooding, Wang had already observed the barrier lake in person. As soon as he got the call from the central government, he went to make the announcement and knocked on every door to make sure of locals’ safety.

Even just two days before the typhoon landed, Wang has already evacuated the most at-risk households. He also started making the broadcast the day before. His diligence really delivered: not a single casualty was reported in the village of more than 1,000.

Wang Tzu-an
Dama Village chief
In the past couple of years, we at Dama Village already took precaution without being instructed to. Every time there’s a typhoon on the way, we evacuate. The villagers are also very compliant. I’m also happy to attend any conference related to disaster mitigation.

What Wang claims is true: he was pictured in a disaster mitigation meeting with other Indigenous communities. On the electoral notice, he stated that he would evacuate villagers and ensure their safety. Many netizens praised him for delivering on his policy platform.

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

#hualien #guangfu #flooding #disaster #safety

政見說到做到! 大馬村千人平安撤離村長家化身便當集中站

2025-09-29

花蓮光復鄉的大馬村，在堰塞湖溢流前，全村上千人平安撤離，零傷亡，關鍵人物就是村長王梓安，與鄰長提前逐戶通知撤離，災情當天還重回現場廣播，讓村民大讚感謝，網友也說他是真英雄，競選政見說到做到，而王村長現在更把自己的家，變成便當集中站，幫忙調度處理。
　
中午用餐時間，大馬村村長王梓安，招呼村民，領取農糧署提供的便當。

王梓安現場調度，將自己的家變成便當集中站，讓災民志工來領取，而村民更感謝的，還有這件事。

[[大馬村民]]
“感謝村長，第一個他廣播，在活動中心廣播，叫我們趕快撤離。”

堰塞湖溢流當天，村長不只親自觀察水情，一接到中央電話，還重回現場廣播，一一提醒。

甚至前兩天，就已經逐戶通知，完成預防性撤離，災前一天也繼續廣播示警，讓光復鄉大馬村上千人，無人傷亡。

[[大馬村長王梓安]]
“因為我們大馬村這幾年來，我們都有一個自主防災。任何不管是颱風也好，我們每一次颱風季節來臨的時候，都有一個撤村的方式。我們一撤離的時候，村民都非常地配合，有任何的一些會議的話，我都願意去參與，救災的會議。”

時間倒回八月中，王村長就有參加部落會議，翻開競選政見，也寫著要"引導安全撤村"，被網友大讚是說到做到。

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Waiting at a red light while out on patrol, this police car noticed a vehicle coming from the opposite direction turn left and stop on the side of the road.

The police approached the car thinking it might be an emergency, and the driver quickly called for help.

The police immediately turned on their sirens and led the car to the hospital as quickly as possible.

The driver, seeing her friend losing consciousness, was extremely frightened. Thankfully, the medical staff took over and rushed the woman to the emergency room for treatment.

Hsu Wen-ming
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While patrolling along Provincial Highway 72 by Keshu Bridge, police were stopped by a driver. She woman said that her friend, surnamed Hsiao蕭, had been bitten by a venomous brown-spotted pit viper and asked the police to escort them to the hospital. The police saw that Hsiao’s left hand was swollen, and she was losing consciousness. Recognizing the urgency, the police immediately turned on the car’s sirens and lights to clear the way.

The brown-spotted pit viper is one of Taiwan’s six deadly snakes. Hsiao was bitten in the mountainous areas of Miaoli’s TongluoTownship, and her condition worsened quickly while on the way to the hospital. Thanks to the police escort, a trip that should have taken 10 minutes took only five, and Hsiao arrived at the hospital with enough time for treatment.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
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Chiayi dessert shop makes douhua that looks like ashtray

Soy milk with tofu pudding, or douhua, is one of Chiayi’s famous desserts. Recently, a shop in Chiayi launched a new kind of tofu pudding that looks just like an ashtray. It looks so realistic that customers questioned whether its edible and even reported it to the Department of Health, which came to check it out.

After ordering tofu pudding, this customer was shocked when a full ashtray was brought to her table.

-Can you really eat this?
-You can eat the whole thing.

The customer hesitantly took a bite, and found it really was tofu pudding, also called douhua.

Customer
The first time I got it, I was kind of shocked, because it’s so realistic. My first thought was, is she serious? It’s a little sweet and spicy. Smoking may be unhealthy, but douhua is healthy!

A creative young entrepreneur in Chiayi thought of this ashtray douhua, which uses black sesame, sugar, pepper, and while chocolate biscuits to create the appearance of an ashtray. It looks so realistic that the Department of Health even came to check it out.

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Yesterday, an inspector from the Department of Health came in and said we may have breached the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act. It turns out that our douhua looks so realistic that someone reported it, suspecting that it might be illegal.

Customer
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Customer
I didn’t think it would have this flavor at all. At first, I thought it would be savory, but these tapioca pearls... They really look like salmon roe.

Mia
Entrepreneur
I saw a salmon roe rice bowl and suddenly thought, hey, this could be combined with douhua. Then trying to match the shape of the roe, I found these pink tapioca pearls.

In the age of social media, the camera always eats first. Food not only needs to be delicious, but also visually captivating to get the internet’s attention.

#douhua #tofupudding #soymilk #soybeanpudding #Chiayi #dessert #ashtray #salmonroe #sweet #savory #food #art

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Nantou has never hosted Taiwan’s National Day celebrations. But that is about to change. This year 32,393 fireworks will light up the night sky in the county, in a show that will last 40 minutes. Nantou also will be holding its annual Nantou Global Tea Expo, so it’s the perfect opportunity to check out the teas during the day and watch the pyrotechnics at night. Meanwhile, Taichung will be hosting the National Day performance.

A vast array of colorful fireworks will soon light up Nantou’s skies for National Day on Oct. 10. The show will last 40 minutes and feature more than 30,000 fireworks, sure to leave nobody indifferent.

Hsu Shu-hua
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This is the first time since Nantou County was established that we have hosted celebrations at the national level. The National Day fireworks display will flourish in Nantou City. The Maoluo River is an extremely beautiful place and it is where we have held the Nantou Lantern Festival for many years. Many friends in Central Taiwan are quite familiar with this location.

The National Day fireworks display will happen near the Maoluo River and the lover’s bridge, creating a stunning display against the local scenery. Nantou and Taichung have joined forces to invite people from Taiwan and abroad to join the fun.

Hsu Shu-hua
Nantou commissioner
We are co-hosting a press conference with the Taichung City Government. First, the National Day performance on Oct. 9 will be in Taichung, and the National Day fireworks display on Oct. 10 will be in Nantou. We hope that by working together, we can expand our tourist numbers, especially since Nantou hosts the Nantou Global Tea Expo around this time every year.

Visitors can check out the tea expo during the day and watch the fireworks display at night, with more than 1 million visitors expected. Traffic controls will start at noon on National Day, with six shuttle buses routes to keep people moving.

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It’s almost Mid-Autumn Festival. A long line is a common sight at this famed egg yolk pastry shop in Taichung’s North District. But an employee has come out to urge shoppers against their products, saying that the store’s facilities are unsanitary.

Whistleblower (voice altered)
Works at pastry shop
They use the type of plywood sheet used as building material. The dough touches the plywood directly, and we only clean the plywood board every half a year or so. Usually we just scrape off excess oil from the plywood, and even then the oil being scraped off has a sort of rancid smell to it.

The whistleblower also reveals that there’s mold inside the kitchen, and that ingredients are placed in empty, rusted cans and dirty plywood sheets.

Whistleblower (voice altered)
Works at pastry shop
We did buy new wooden sheets for Mid-Autumn Festival. But as you can see in the pictures, there are still traces of paint on them.

Mr. Huang
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We leave the cans on the countertop once they’re emptied, because we only ask the recyclers to come in and remove them after there’s a certain volume. So it’s inevitable that some of them may begin to rust. As for the walls where we hang utensils, because we’re always using the kitchen, so it’s inevitable that there are ingredient splatters on the walls. But we clean the area every day, and if you take pictures before cleaning and claim that the marks are mold, that’s just untrue.

The pastry shop owner denies the accusations. He added that even the employee in question has placed an order for the pastries. He says that the employee in question could have been attempting to seek revenge due to their dissatisfaction with the terms of employment.

Mr. Huang
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We’re now nearing holiday season. We hope that the person in question would sort out the issue with those involved, and refrain from doing harm to our company out of personal issues.

The Taichung Food and Drug Safety Office has since conducted an inspection and discovered that the pastry shop did not follow best practices for sanitation in the food industry. It has issued the shop with a warning that they could be fined if improvements weren’t made on a second inspection.

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As Hualien continues to recover from devastating floods, stories of quiet heroism are emerging from across Taiwan. Ordinary people are stepping up in extraordinary ways. There’s a tow truck driver clearing roads at night, a coffee shop owner who closed his business to cook thousands of meals and many other unsung heroes.

The crane arm is raised and lowered onto a car caked in mud that can no longer move.

It’s hoisted onto the truck, all by one skilful operator from Jiji, Nantou, dubbed “Tow Truck Superman.”

Tow Truck Superman
Helping with cleanup
In the Jiji Earthquake, lots of people came to help. The TV said they needed tow trucks, so I cleared my schedule and came. I moved about 10 cars these three days. There’s lots of machinery and volunteers, which makes it hard to get in during the day. So I work at night. We first target more urgent cases where the cars are blocking the cleanup or the road. If it’s not in the way, I tell the owners I’ll get back to them later.

Having received much help in the 1999 Jiji Earthquake, he now wants to help out in Hualien, even at the cost of losing job assignments. The situation in Guangfu is rough, and he’s already had to deal with a flat tire.

Tow Truck Superman
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There’s a lot of stuff on the road. I must have run over something and ruptured the tire. Luckily, a kind soul gave me a spare tire. So I didn’t have to patch it up. It was just the right size.

Another person who set aside their work to help in the disaster area is the owner of a coffee shop in Kaohsiung. He took the earliest train to Hualien and formed a rescue team with customers.

Lin Yan-yu
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The flooding reached above the first floor of many homes in the disaster area, and the sediment in some places is 1.5m deep. We’re all Taiwanese. We’re all one family. We should all use some of our time, energy and strength to help out.

The coffee shop boss completed his studies in the East Coast and started a business in Kaohsiung after graduating. Seeing the devastation in Hualien, he put on his rain boots to clear mud from people’s homes. He also used his catering skills to help a team of 300 people prepare more than 10,000 lunch boxes.

Lin Yan-yu
Coffee shop boss
You can always earn money later. But there’s nothing you can do but spend time to improve the situation. The mud is beginning to harden, so it’s critical that young people and people in general come help out at the disaster site.

Though his coffee shop typically fills with crowds during long weekends, Lin says disaster relief is more important than potentially earning NT$80,000. He hopes that by doing his little bit, he can help people rebuild their homes soon.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Mon to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
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