Dragon Boat Festival is coming up (June 2nd), so we will be running a few related articles over the next two weeks. First up is our general guide to the festival, including a bit of history, boat racing, the customs and food, with added poison. We also have a list of all of the major races around Taiwan. Fingers crossed the weather will have improved by then.

It has been one of the wettest May weeks in history, with CNN stating that Taipei was the wettest place on Earth on Wednesday. There was also a sizeable 5.9 earthquake on Wednesday morning, which registered as a 6 in part of Hualien and 2 to 3 in Taipei and Taichung. Quite enough to shake the nerves.

Wednesday also saw tragedy on the MRT, when a 21-year-old student randomly attacked people on the MRT with knives. Four people died as a result and scores were injured. I can’t remember anything like this happening in Taiwan before, and we all hope we never do again (join the discussion).

In other news, taxi fares look to be going up in the north, reportedly by around 15%. Prices haven’t increased for around 6 years and the rates will still be cheap compared to many countries. We’ll post updated info when confirmed in the Latest News.

For those who enjoy a museum (such as the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology), there is good news, as a “museum cluster” is being built in the Yuanshan area. At over a billion NT$ and 9.6 hectares, it certainly sounds promising, and if they do as good a job as they did with the NMMST we should be in for a treat. There will be several museums and what sounds like a cultural area, and the food and beverage and tunnel museums will be the first to open in 2016.

If you are in the Taichung area, the Ba Zai Arts Festival is on this weekend. Read more about the festival here.

Interesting site of the week, a photo gallery/article on an abandoned and ruined night club complex in Tainan from synapticism.com. Fascinating stuff.

As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please get in touch. We would especially like to hear from writers from around Taiwan.

Thanks again for reading, have a great week, and we hope to see you back soon.

Taiwan Ho!