TAIPEI, Taiwan - (Business Wire) The Taipei City Government promoted the 2010 Taipei International Gardening and Horticulture Exposition in Shanghai on November 1 with an interactive musical during which the Taipei Expo mascot “Ya-by” made its first appearance on stage together with its Expo 2010 Shanghai China counterpart, “Haibao.” Since the Taipei Expo is scheduled to open on November 6 next year after the Shanghai Expo concludes on October 31, Commissioner Chung-hwa Tuo of the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said he hopes residents of the two cities will visit both expositions to increase intercity exchanges. Taipei City is negotiating with Shanghai travel agencies to give World Expo visitors discount when they buy Taipei Expo admission tickets, he added.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin introduced Ya-by, the new mascot of the 2010 Taipei Expo which resembles a brown seed, to the public in a press conference on October 28 after it received the name in a round of online voting.
Mayor Hau thanked the 140,000 online voters for giving the new mascot its name and announced officially that Ya-by has been inducted into the family of Taipei Expo mascots, which includes five flower fairies. Ya-by was chosen from 21 names came up in the online voting.
The Flora Expo will give Taipei City an opportunity to renovate its urban landscape, presenting the city with a new face to foreign visitors, Hau noted, adding that there is still a lot of work to be done before the exposition opens on November 6, 2010.
Ya-by was sent on its first overseas mission, a promotion tour starting in Shanghai, together with a Taipei delegation headed by Deputy Mayor Lee Yong-ping on October 29.
Mayor Hau said while the 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009 had a theme of “power of silence,” Ya-by is assigned the mission to spread to the world the message that the 2010 Taipei Expo presents “power of beauty.” Taipei City Government aims to inject into the city concepts of environmental protection and hope through hosting the flora expo and convert Taipei into a beautiful garden city, noted the mayor.
Presale admission tickets for the 2010 Taipei Int’l Flora Expo are now available. During the first phase of presale, the NT$300 tickets cost only NT$200. In addition, individuals who ordered the limited “mascot version” tickets before December 31 will have a chance to win raffle cash prizes and souvenirs.
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Taipei City Government
Kuo-Hsiung Ma, 886-2-27256637
ea41348@mail.taipei.gov.tw
