This year's Taiwan International Orchid Show will begin its 10-day run tomorrow at the International Flora Exhibition Center in Houpi Township (
Taiwan Orchid Plantation, the organizer of the fifth annual show, said this year's exhibition is expected to draw more than 300,000 visitors, including more than 2,000 overseas buyers.
The Tainan County Government said orchids are one of the nation's major exports, accounting for more than 50 percent of the total value of Taiwanese flower exports. The Taiwan Orchid Plantation plays an important role in these exports, the county said.
Orchid growers from 24 countries are taking part in this year's exhibition, including the US, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.
One part of the exhibition has been set aside to display landscape design using orchids. There will also be an orchid competition and a special area dedicated to newly developed rare orchid varieties. Visitors will also be able to buy orchids.
Meanwhile, the International Commercial Orchid Growers Organization will hold an International Orchid Symposium today to discuss orchid conservation, cultivation, biotechnology and its applications.
Taiwan is known as the "Kingdom of the Butterfly Orchid" because it is the world's largest exporter of the flower. About half the world's butterfly orchid varieties are grown in Taiwan.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS