The Double-Tenth Day celebration was held on October 10 in Taipei with a carnival float passing by the Presidential Office. Taichung City Government participated in the theme of “2017 Leopard Cat Salutation”. This Leopard Cat Float attracted much of the attention of the audiences as it was led by a mother leopard cat with an Omi Horse in the rear and flanked by 2 cute baby leopard cats flexing their little claws. The appearance of Mayor Lin really gave a surprise. He waved his hands on the float to greet the audiences. Mayor Lin mentioned that it really was a unique experience in giving salute to President Tsai on the float. He was pleased to have the chance to show his respect to the overseas Chinese and people in the event so that everyone could share the joy of the national day. This Leopard Cat Float will be exhibited in NanGang Exhibition Center until October 15 and will be back to Taichung to meet the residents there from October 18 to 22.

This was the first time that a float carnival was adopted for the the Double Tenth celebration. There were 46 nicely designed floats in the parade. The “2017 Leopard Cat Salutation” is the float prepared by Taichung City Government with leopard cat as the theme. This float is 19 meters long, 5 meters high with hand painted colors all over the body that resembled an oil painting and highlighted the fine hair of a leopard cat. The style is superb.

The Leopard Cat Float of Taichung City was converted from a trailer cart and was the biggest among other floats in the carnival. It turned out to the focus of the event and earned most of the cheers from the audiences as “Superb!”, “Cute”! Mayor Lin Chia-Lung of Taichung and the Director Chuo Kuan-Ting of the Information Bureau of Taichung showed their support in the event. The two wore straw hats, with bouquets of yellow oncidium in their hands, and waved their hands to the audiences frequently as the parade moved on.

In an interview with the news media, Mayor Lin mentioned that the Flora Expo 2018 will be held in Taichung. The float is themed with leopard cat and was a projection of the floral specialties of Taichung like oncidium, lily, anthurium, and gladiolus. This really was a unique experience to salute President Tsai on a float and participated in the event timely, as it is an opportunity to greet the overseas compatriots and the people of Taiwan along the road to share the joy of the national day celebration, said Mayor Lin.

According to Taichung City Government, the leopard cat family and omi horse are the mascots of Floral Expo Taichung. The Double Tenth Day celebration just provided the impetus for showing off the mascots to everybody. The float was led by the mother leopard cat with her pair of lovely blinking eyes, followed by omi horses dressed in camouflage with smoke coming out from the nostrils. This float was flanked by two lively baby leopard cats that teased the omi horses all the times. These two baby cats flexed their cute small claws that scared the omi horses to hop around and opened their mouths widely that sketched out a lively picture.

The float also gave an impression of orchids, lily, and anthurium, which are all specialties of Taichung. The float was decorated with the logo of the Floral Expo – Green leaves, orange flowers, blue waterfall and other colors that disseminated a message of “Green, Nature, and People,” or GNP spirit of humanity. Other specialties of Taichung like the special pastry, National Theatre and Concert Hall, THU Church, and Pavilion on the lake and other landmarks of Taichung were also characterized.

The float for the carnival was made by an awarded contractor under the exclusive sponsorship of Cota Bank. Mayor Lin expressed his special gratitude to the bank for the support that made the leopard cat float an attraction in the Double Tenth Day parade, and appreciated its effort in the upcoming Flora Expo in Taichung. Cota Bank is a century old but prestigious bank in Taichung.

After the flag-raising ceremony, 46 floats started the parade drill from YanPing South Road at the junction of ChangSha Street, moved northward to the North Gate Square. The people flocked to the roads and streets on both sides of the route for the parade and took pictures. The float parade then moved to Site C3 of NanGang Exhibition Center and parked at the “National Day Floats Exhibition Zone” for six days. Lighting effect has been arranged at nighttime for the public to share the joy of the national day.

According to Taichung City Government, the leopard cat float will be parked at NanGang in Taipei until October 15, and back to Taichung from October 18 to 22. People can take the chance to get close to the float.

Mayor Lin has also participated in the flag-raising ceremony at the Presidential Office Square earlier this morning and watched the performance of the Police Academy, the guards of honor from the three forces, the military special forces, the Formosa Crew, National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, and Air Force Thunder Tiger.