The hotel occupancy rate in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County during the Lunar New Year holiday dropped to the lowest point in 10 years as more people opted to visit the Taipei International Flora Expo and the E-DA Theme Park in the southern city of Kaohsiung instead, a tourism industry official said yesterday.

The southern Taiwan county of Yunlin is opening a specialty shop in Shanghai today to sell more than 100 of its agricultural products, the county chief said Friday during a visit to the financial center of China.

Hundreds of residents, many of whom are not fishermen by trade, have found a new after-dark pastime along the southern Hualien coast — catching eel.

The nation's first International Tourist Theater, complete with a state-of-the-arts revolving gallery, has finally been constructed at Taroko Gorge, Hualien County's tourist Mecca, the Tourism Department of the Hualien County Government announced yesterday.

The Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien launched a medical tourism program yesterday in a bid to become a regional player as Taiwan seeks to expand its tourism industry.

Prosecutors are seeking a life-sentence for man who allegedly caused the death of a scooter driver by swerving across the road for fun.

Transport services on the Suao-Hualien (Suhua) Highway, which was severely devastated by mud and rock slides triggered by torrential rains caused by Typhoon Megi last month, is set to resume on Monday.

An east coast bed and breakfast owner suspected of drugging and indecently assaulting women staying in his guest house was taken into custody following a request by prosecutors investigating the case.

A body part was recovered from the sea off the northeastern coast below the Suao-Hualien (Suhua) Highway yesterday, but it remained unclear if it belonged to any of the individuals who have been missing since the highway was hit by deadly landslides Oct. 21.

Search and rescue teams found yesterday a coastal area with strong metal reactions along Suhua Highway and digging operations will continue today in hopes of locating a bus carrying a group of Chinese tourists swept off the road and buried by land and rock slides.