The group led by Mayor Hu on September 4 to New Zealand's North Shore City was well welcomed by our Taiwan office's representative in Auckland, Stewart Rundle from Free China Association and overseas Taiwanese. George Wood, the mayor of North Shore City and the councilors also went to the airport to meet the group. Mayor Hu will hold a press conference on September 12 to talk about the trip.

The trip to North Shore City has strengthened the friendship between these two cities. Taichung city is the only city in Taiwan, which has ties with any cities in New Zealand while China has 42 ties. Mayor Hu hopes that our central government can put in more efforts in seeing more ties happening.

According to the records kept in the New Zealand museum, the Maori, the New Zealand aborigines, originally came from Taiwan. Some scientist also proves that the Maori and Taiwanese aborigines share 60% DNA in common. Mayor Hu was fascinated with the report and interested bringing Maori culture into Taiwan. He also expressed that Taiwan should work on broadening the relationship between Taiwan and New Zealand. It'll be a breakthrough if Taiwanese aborigine dance performance can be broadcasted in the Maori-only program to point out our special blood relationship.

Maori traditional dance was arranged to welcome the group's visit. The event was welcoming and warm. North Shore City Mayor, George Wood, city councilors along with other important officials were all there to give welcome speeches. Mayor Hu also responded with the thank-you speech in English, Chinese, Taiwanese and Taiwanese aborigine language.

The main purpose of this trip is to hold culture exchange art exhibition. A total of 29 outstanding painters and calligraphy artists attended the exhibition. Mayor Hu, George Wood, the representative of Taiwan’s office in Auckland hosted the opening ceremony together. Mayor Hu also invited two excellent pianists from the event "12 pianos Classical music concert", held at Taichung Amphitheater, along to perform at the exhibition, which attracted thousands of fans despite the heavy rain. Numerous Chinese painters and calligraphy artists also make art at the exhibition. All those activities contribute to the success of this culture exchange trip.

The works in the exhibition was well received among the overseas Chinese community, which expressed the will of having the work shown at the Taiwan Festival on November 4. 28 out of 29 pieces of arts will stay for the show, considered as the extended activity, which proves the trip is indeed a success.