Taipei Deputy Mayor Allen Chiu, left, announces yesterday that 15,000 visitors a day will be admitted to the Xinsheng Park and the Fine Arts Park areas of the Taipei International Flora Expo during the expo’s second-phase trial period, which starts today.
Photo: CNA
The Taipei International Flora Expo will begin its second-phase trial operation this morning, with Xinsheng Park and the Fine Arts Park areas opening to invited guests.
Photo: CNA
The maximum number of daily visitors has also been raised from 10,000 to 15,000.
The expo organizing committee said it would follow the original trial operation plan and ban uninvited visitors from entering the second-phase trial operation sites, which will be open until Wednesday.
However, the Yuanshan Park Area, which started its trial run on Sunday as part of the first-phase operation, will remain open for all guests.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Allen Chiu (邱文祥) told a press conference yesterday that the organizing committee would not open its doors to uninvited guests again, and only selected guests such as expo volunteers would be allowed to enter the Xinsheng Park and Fine Arts Park areas.
The guest policy of the expo’s trial operations sparked controversy when the organizers failed to stick to its policy of only -allowing invited groups during the trial run for the Yuanshan Park area on Saturday and allowed nearby residents to visit the area to prevent public protests.
The number of visitors surged to more than 10,000 during the first day of the trial period, far above the 5,000 limit set by the committee.
“We appreciate the enthusiasm and the feedback from the public, but it is important for us to stick to the original plan in order to put the expo to the test before it formally opens on Nov. 6,” Chiu said.
After the second-phase ends its trial run on Wednesday, the third phase will start immediately from Oct. 21 to Oct. 24 at the Dajia Riverside Park Area.
About 90 percent of the expo site will be open to residents of Zhongshan (中山) and Datong (大同) districts in addition to selected guests during the final trial run from Oct. 25 to Oct. 28.
Information from the organizers showed that 63,109 people have visited the Yuanshan Park since it opened on Saturday, with 6,832 surveys filled and collected.
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