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.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
RSS