Exposed underwear leaves Taiwan airport in a flap

Aug 17, 2011, 4:49 GMT

Taipei - An airport in central Taiwan has asked local residents to curb their laundry exposure, after the sight of drying underwear frightened off a Japanese tour agency, an official said Wednesday.

The agency cancelled planned charter flights into Taichung Airport after representatives were put off by underwear hanging from nearby run-down apartment blocks during a visit earlier this year, an airport official said by phone.

The move prompted the government-run airport's management to talk with leaders from the surrounding million-person city of Taichung, said the official, who asked not to be named.

'Outside, the ambience is very much that of the countryside, so people pretty much do as they wish, including hang clothes,' the official said. 'We are going through the city government to change the situation, but to what degree I can't say yet.'

Unregulated land-use sharing is common in Taiwan, due to population density and lack of zoning.

Residents of the 40-year-old buildings near the airport once hung their washing on the pedestrian walkway to the departure terminal itself, 'becoming an international joke,' according to the Liberty Times newspaper.

Taichung Airport, the gateway to nearby mountain tourist spots, handles flights from Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City and mainland China.

The offended travel agency, which was not named, was to experiment with a few charter flights next month, the first to Taichung from Japan, the Liberty Times said.

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