The gas crisis has arrived in Taiwan


Today I'm really happy that I ride a bike for daily transportation. Gas prices are going up all over the world, but that's especially true for Taiwan this week. The outgoing government froze gas prices after the election; maybe it was an attempt to go out with a little favor. On May 20, the new president was inaugurated, and subsequently the gas prices could no longer stay the same. Since they've been frozen since the end of March, there's quite a ways to go. Officially, at midnight tonight the price of gas will rise 2NT per litre, or about 6 cents (to just over a dollar a liter in Canadian money). In the next month it will happen twice more. So what were people all over Taiwan doing tonight? Waiting in line to get gas! The police even joined in the party doing crowd control. On the way home from Chinese class, people were lined up about 2km along the highway near the gas stations.... though I had to wonder if the gas they were wasting while idling in line was even more than the money they were saving by getting gas before midnight...

Comments

  1. Anonymous3:11 pm

    That's amazing,isn't it. I think it's only in Taiwan. After I calculating how much can they save, well, around 5-8 USD dollar. Waiting for two hours for saving USD 5-8 dollars....??? I think people enjoy join a gas refill festival than just go to save the money.

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