County officials said about 5,000 people attended the event, which has become one of Jiadong’s main Dragon Boat Festival activities. This year’s program also included a watermelon design contest, a watermelon-eating contest, and a farmers’ market.

The Central Weather Administration (中央氣象署) issued a heavy rain advisory Monday morning for nine cities and counties, including Kaohsiung and Pingtung, as moist southwesterly winds continued to affect Taiwan.

Speaking in Pingtung, President Lai Ching-te said the central government would continue working on water, electricity, land and talent policies to support industry…as well as measures to attract international talent.

The Pingtung Department of Transportation and Tourism (屏東縣政府交通旅遊處), citing Tourism Administration figures, said South Korean visitors made up nearly 12% of all arrivals to Taiwan last year. About 116,000 South Korean travelers visited Pingtung, the department said.

The county government said illegal operators have used methods including blacking out license plates, covering waste with clean soil, and falsifying documents to disguise dumping. Pingtung County Magistrate Chou Chun-mi (周春米) said the bureau has introduced an AI recognition system this year to improve monitoring in remote dumping hot spots. The county has installed 50 AI surveillance cameras at 25 high-risk locations, allowing the system to automatically flag suspicious vehicles or dumping behavior around the clock.

According to recent reporting, there are estimates that by 2051, daily passenger volume at the future HSR Pingtung station could exceed 7,000, with peak-hour traffic approaching 900 passengers. Supporters say the project would improve access to Pingtung and support wider development around the future station. But the latest traffic projections show that the benefits of high-speed rail will depend not only on the rail line itself, but also on whether local roads and connecting transport can keep pace.

A cluster of planned industrial, medical, and transport projects is drawing renewed attention to northern Pingtung, as local officials and developers frame the area around National Freeway No. 3 as an emerging growth corridor for southern Taiwan.

Pingtung prosecutors had previously granted deferred prosecution to Su, hospital general affairs chief Su Wei-sung (蘇威菘), an electrical equipment worker surnamed Cheng (鄭), and a building safety inspector surnamed Kuo (郭). The four had acknowledged building violations and paid compensation to victims’ families, according to the report.

The bridge began as a temporary railway bridge built in 2009 during Kaohsiung’s railway undergrounding project. After trains were moved underground in 2018, the tracks and overhead wires were removed, and the structure was converted into a riverside landscape bridge in 2021. Its planned removal now shows how the THSR extension is not just a regional transportation project, but a major urban construction challenge for Kaohsiung.

Army Recognition said the southern drills showed Taiwan is training for practical coastal combat conditions rather than a symbolic display, with mobile precision fires becoming a central part of homeland defense.