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One of the top stories from this past week was that Taiwanese weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching carried the flag on behalf of her teammates at the Olympics closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night, local time.
It was a fitting choice to have Hsu carry the flag since she was the only Taiwanese athlete to win a gold at this year’s games.
Hsu came in first place in the women’s 53kg event. She lifted 100kg in the snatch and 112kg in the clean and jerk. She was awarded the gold medal after Chinese weightlifter Li Yajun was disqualified for failing to complete the clean and jerk portion of the event.
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Also this past week, the military has shut down Taiwan’s longest tunnel for a military exercise simulating an attempt to invade Taipei.
The Hsuehshan Tunnel runs beneath mountains for nearly 13km. It connects Yilan County on Taiwan’s northeast coast with the Taipei area. The simulation was held Wednesday as part of the annual Han Kuang Exercise. The military practiced using obstacles and booby traps to trap an invasion force in the tunnel and stop it from getting through.
The army’s commanding officer in charge of the Yilan area said Wednesday this is the military’s first ever simulated defense of the tunnel. The officer said he hopes the exercise will leave the military better prepared to defend Taipei.
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And finally, this past week, Pokemon Go has become so popular that it has become a traffic hazard in places like the outskirts of Taipei in Beitou. Beitou police has set up a group to deal with the crowds which reached over 10,000 this past weekend. Rare monsters often appear in the Pokemon Go game in that park.
Between August 11 and 22, there were 474 parking violations and 46 pedestrian violations in Beitou Park. The new police group will work to keep the crowds safe and the traffic moving. It also said if there were continuous parking violations, the police would call on two trucks to deal with the cars immediately so that people can enjoy their road rights in the area.
The MRT saw 18,000 people using the Beitou station on Sunday which is three times more than during the weekends in July. The mass rush of the crowd to catch Pokemon creatures was even reported in global media such as Time magazine. Time’s website described it as a scene from the end of the world.