Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng (韓正) is scheduled to arrive in Taipei tomorrow, leading a 200-member delegation to attend a forum on city-to-city exchanges, the Taipei City Government said yesterday.
According to Han’s itinerary released by the city government, Han will arrive in Taiwan at Taipei Songshan Airport at 11am tomorrow and will attend the Taipei-Shanghai city forum the same day.
The visit will mark Han’s first in Taiwan. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) led a delegation to Shanghai in June 2008.
Han is expected to sign four cooperation memorandums at the forum to boost cultural, travel, scientific and environmental protection exchanges.
After the forum, he will visit the Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School to talk with high school students about the 2010 World Expo, which will open in Shanghai on May 1, and the Taipei International Flora Exposition.
On Wednesday, Han will visit National Palace Museum, the Beitou Incinerator and the Taipei MRT system. He will also visit Taipei 101, the Eslite Xinyi flagship bookstore, as well as Taichung City, Taipei County and Taoyuan County on Thursday before returning to Shanghai Friday morning.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News said on Saturday that Han could announce the launch of direct-flight services between Songshan Airport and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport during his visit.
The direct-flight service between Taipei and Shanghai was part of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign promises, which would place the nation’s capital in a what he called “a golden business triangle in Northeast Asia” with Shanghai and Tokyo.
The direct-flight service between Songshan and Japan’s Tokyo-Haneda Airport is scheduled to begin in October.
However, Civil Aviation Administration of China Deputy Director Xia Xinghua (夏興華) said at a forum in Taipei last month that Songshan airport was in the process of expanding its facilities and is not able to accommodate large aircraft.
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