Can Taiwan transform itself into an orchid kingdom in the near future? The floriculture community in Taiwan has had this ambitious dream for many years and a positive turn toward such a possibility has just taken place this week.
About two years ago, a plan was launched by the government to build a permanent exhibition site and trading center for local orchid growers. The plan has come to fruition and is about to put to be put to the test, starting from tomorrow.
If it proves successful and the large-scale international orchid exhibition is a success, then Taiwan, the world's leading exporter country of orchids, might be viewed as the natural home of the magnificent
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIWAN INTERNATIONAL ORCHID SHOW 2005
phalaenopsis.
The government has poured billions of NT dollars into developing the Taiwan Orchid Plantation (TOP) project in Hobi (
The plantation has an area of 200 hectares and is scheduled to be completed in 2008.
Beginning tomorrow, the fourth international orchid show -- the largest annual orchid exhibit in Taiwan -- will be held at the plantation.
With 15 participating countries, this multi-national floral exhibit will showcase more than a thousand orchids to the public, until April 10.
Cosponsored by the Tainan County Government and Council of Agriculture, this 14-day event expects to attract approximately half a million flower lovers from all over Taiwan and abroad.
Three major areas will feature different varieties of orchids, flower arrangements and landscape design. Handicrafts with orchids, the chance to experience the fragrance of the flowers and other attractions will be enjoyed by visitors. There will even be a section devoted to orchid stamps from around the world.
The award-winning Orchid Exhibition Hall (
The Sales Booth Hall (
According to Su Mao-shiang (蘇茂祥), an official from the Agriculture and Food Agency, at the Council of Agriculture, Taiwan is the world's largest exporting country of orchids, with Japan, North America, Europe and Hong Kong as its major markets. The flowers bring in an annual income of around US$60 millions for the country.
Stiff competition is coming but Su says Taiwan maintained a comfortable lead in the global orchid market and captured a 77 percent share last year.
Exhibition notes:
What: Taiwan International Orchid Show 2005
Where: Taiwan Orchid Plantation (台灣蘭花生物科技園區), Hobi (後壁), Tainan County
When: March 26 to April 10
Tickets: NT$150 per person
Telephone: (06) 6840 684
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless