Taichung mayor from Taiwan promotes tourism in Beijing
10.10.2011, 13:17
Hu, mayor of the third largest city in Taiwan, is in Beijing attending the World Mayors' Forum, a three-day forum, which opened Wednesday.
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Themes of the forum are crisis management and disaster prevention, but Hu said his ultimate goal in Beijing is to promote travel to Taichung.
"I learnt from a recent survey that mainland people most desire to visit Jih Yue Tan, Ali Mountain .... They most desire to buy Taiwan's local delicacies Sun-shaped cake, shortbread with pineapple juice and oolong tea," said Hu. "Actually, Jih Yue Tan and Ali Mountain are near Taichung. Sun-shaped cake and shortbread with pineapple juice are native delicacies of Taichung."
The Chinese mainland announced on May 20 that it will hold talks with Taiwan about opening tourism to the island. Vast numbers of mainlanders will mean a huge boom to Taiwan's travel industry.
Hu has received extensive media attention since he arrived in Beijing. The publicity has given him an excellent opportunity to promote his cause.
"I have taken time to walk on the streets of Beijing and tasted local delicacies in the last two evenings. People in Beijing are very friendly and very cute," said Hu. "People in Taichung are very cute too. Welcome to Taichung."
Hu said he was optimistic about the developments of two events, mainland people visiting Taiwan and the mainland presenting a pair of giant pandas to Taiwan as gifts.
"The absolute majority of Taiwan people look forward to them," said Hu.
He said the two sides, estranged after a civil war in the late 1940s, should engage in more communication and interaction to avoid misunderstanding, antagonism and suspicion.
"Exchanges are a good thing. They are unlikely to bring negative results," said Hu. "If I win another term as mayor of Taichung, I'd like to do more to promote exchanges between Taichung and mainland cities."
The Chinese mainland has recently taken a series of moves to strengthen links across the Taiwan Strait, which also include opening market to 18 Taiwan fruits and abolishing tariffs on 15 of them.
The current Taiwan authorities, who are pushing for "Taiwan independence", do not appreciate the "gifts" and are working to avoid closer links.
Source: Xinhua