The Taichung World Flora Exposition opened yesterday, featuring horticulture from around the world at three venues in Houli (后里), Fongyuan (豐原) and Waipu (外埔) districts.
The expo is held in cities around the world to promote gardening and horticultural design. The Taichung expo is the second time it has been held in Taiwan after the Taipei Flora Exposition in 2010.
The Taichung expo’s leopard cat mascots, Love and Life, were at entrances to welcome visitors.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the preservation of leopard cats at Houli Horse Ranch and Forest Park, one of the three venues, was supported by the International Association of Horticultural Producers.
Visitor numbers reached 30,000 as of noon yesterday, according to the Taichung City Government, the event’s organizer.
The city government said that it expects 8 million people to visit the expo, with up to 6 million of them staying in the city — including 1 million foreign travelers — bringing revenue of up to NT$30 billion (US$976 million).
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Expo spokeswoman Huang Yi-han (黃意涵) said that Taichung’s goal is to exceed the 585,000 international visitors who attended the Taipei expo.
Taichung has stepped up its global marketing campaign and established direct flights to the city, Huang said.
In June, flights began between Taichung International Airport and Narita International Airport in Japan — in addition to the 18 international routes established from 2015 to last year — which are expected to bring more than 1 million visitors to the city, she said.
Photo: CNA
Taichung International Tourism Association chairman Chai Chun-lin (柴俊林) said that it takes more than a day to see the expo’s three venues, which means visitors are likely to stay one or two nights, which would be a big boost for local businesses.
The first visitor to enter the Houli site yesterday was Atsushi Futakami from Japan.
He said he was a staff member at the 1990 International Garden and Greenery Expo in Osaka, Japan, and has visited flora expos around the world since then.
The city government advised people to use public transport to reach the venues to reduce congestion.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS