Today (29th), Governor of Yamagata Ken Mieko Yoshimura has led a group to visit Mayor Chia-lung Lin. They signed the「Memorandum of experience sharing and collaboration of tourism, culture and economic friendship」 to become sister cities. Yamagata Ken has responded to the Flora Expo and Taichung to sign the「Taichung Declaration」to enhance the friendship between both of them. Mayor Lin was passionately inviting Yamagata Ken to participate in the Flora Expo. And he would expect to visit Yamagata Ken to enhance the friendship between them constantly and get closer to each other.

Mayor Lin has signed the memorandum with Governor of Yamagata Ken Mieko Yoshimura at Taichung City Government today to make these two cities to become the sister cities. These two cities will base on the axis of tourism to promote the tourism marketing, education and agricultural products through close communications and experience sharing. Therefore, Governor of Yamagata Ken Mieko Yoshimura and Mayor Lin have taken the action of signing the「Taichung Declaration」to echo to the proposal for Green productivity, Nature sustainability and People with Green-ability of Flora Expo as well.

Mayor Lin mentioned, Taichung has followed Kaohsiung and Yilan to become the third sister city of Yamagata Ken in Taiwan. By way of the in-depth communications on the aspects of tourism, agriculture and education. Also, Taichung and Yamagata Ken shared a lot of similarities, for example, the fruits, hot springs and bicycle industry in Yamagata Ken are quite popular while Taichung promoting the same items for tourism business. Hence, we believe the collaborations with Yamagata Ken through this opportunity will bring us fruitful results.

Mayor Lin said, Taichung is about to having the World Flora Expo held and more people would understand the ideas of Green productivity, Nature sustainability and People with Green-ability behind Flora Expo by signing the「Taichung Declaration」. We’d like to welcome our friends from Japan to participate in Taichung Flora Expo. In addition, Taiwan-Japan tourism summit will be held in Taichung on the day after tomorrow. This is an important annual event for the tourism industry in Taiwan and Japan. We expect to leverage the event to reinforce the relationship between Taiwan and Japan while enhancing the development of tourism for both sides.

Governor of Yamagata Ken Mieko Yoshimura said, she thought Taichung is a well developed and young city. She’s quite happy to become the sister city of Taichung. Also, Yamagata Ken is a place with many flowers produced so it is also nicknamed as 「Yamagata of flower」. This is a common feature shared with Taichung so the communications of tourism and economic between these two cities are expected to be more active and vigorous.

Governor of Yamagata Ken Mieko Yoshimura said, Yamagata Ken is a kingdom of hot springs with a lot of places where hot springs are gushing out. Meanwhile, Yamagata Ken is a kingdom of fruits with cherries, grapes and peaches etc. Also, the liquor making techniques in Yamagata Ken is excellent with the top ranked reputation in Japan. The Japanese liquors made in Yamagata Ken has won the Golden awards for the consecutive 10 years in the wine competition conducted in the United States. The citizens from Taichung are highly welcome to visit Yamagata Ken to enjoy the enriched cultural contents in Yamagata Ken.

The officer of Secretariat of Taichung City Government mentioned, the high/ professional schools in Taichung and the schools of Yamagata Ken had started their interactions and close communications with strong relationships since 2014 which was the foundation of the friendship between these two cities and initiated the relationship of sister cities for Taichung City and Yamagata Ken. In the future, these two cities will base on the axis of tourism to facilitate the tourism marketing, education and traveling, and agricultural products through close communications and experience sharing.

The officer of Secretariat of Taichung City Government pointed out, Taichung City and Yamagata Ken shared a lot of common parts in the resources of tourism, like the unique winter scenery of Zao ice trees in Yamagata Ken which is comparable with the special Gaomei Wetland scenery in Taichung; both of those two scenes are recommended as the must go sightseeing spots by the international tourists’ websites. Besides, Taichung City is an important city of bicycle industry and owns many bicycle touring paths, including Houfeng, Donhfeng and Tanyasheng path etc. whereas Yamagata Ken has the「Okitama bicycle path」in southern Yamagata cross Nanyo Shi, Takahata and Yonezawa so the bicycle industry is very popular and busy in these two cities.

World Flora Expo will be kicking off on 3rd November in Taichung. With Yamagata Ken to sign the「Taichung Declaration」, the ideas of Green productivity, Nature sustainability and People with Green-ability behind Flora Expo would be proposed even strongly. The theme of Taichung Flora Expo is 「Exploring GNP」 which turn upside down the traditional meaning of Gross National Product to redefine Green as Green productivity, Nature as Nature sustainability and People as People with Green-ability to pursue the green energy and sustainability to embrace the nature. With the sign to「Taichung Declaration」, we’d like to enhance the collaborations with the international societies by helping each other to make the world better and prosperous.