The Taipei Chinese Food Festival (TCFF) has stepped into her sixteenth anniversary since the first event in 1990.

From the initial stage, the theme of TCFF focused on exploring the future development of Chinese food; the second stage was to promote five-star hotels and upgrade the image of Chinese cuisine by innovation and display. And now, after many years' experience and innovation accumulated, mission of the third and current stage is to integrate the resources of regional cuisines and tourism, then move toward the concept of integrated marketing, for bringing the TCFF heading to a more mature and abundant vision.

The annual festival of TCFF has become a world-known and popular event for the global gourmet. The themes of exhibition this year are including: Herbal Health Food, Legendary Taiwan Rice, Sea and Mountain Harvest, Hakka Food Festival, Tunhuang's Cultural Cuisine, World Culinary Contest, Gold-Medal Dishes, Star Chef Cooking Class , Cooking Skills Demonstrations, Famous Eatery Boulevard…etc. Besides the Star Chef Cooking Class, Cooking Skills Demonstrations, and Famous Eatery Boulevard - the three most popular and traditional programs, to continue the successful feedback of last year, World Culinary Contest has invited 8 teams from Beijing, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, and Taiwan. These teams are all consisted by the top chefs from the region. Every team will show their best culinary skill to win the highest honor. Believe this will be the breathless and exciting contests.

As to the exhibition of Golden Medal Dishes is organized by 12 5-star hotels and restaurants, who will not only exhibit some finest dishes created specially for this event, also provide the value-added set menu coupon on site for visitors purchase. Indeed, one of the most eye-catching exhibits will be the

Typical Cuisine of Tunhuang-Silkroad, the extraordinary dessert cuisine going with the performance of Tunhuang flying dance giving you an unforgettable experience of Buddhist culture of Mokao Cave and Northwest Great Desert feeling.

The Festival of Hakka Foods is under guidance by Council for Hakka Affairs, the Executive Yuan, where give a complete introduction of specialty of Hakka Food, meanwhile, to understand furthermore about Hakka culture.

Come and join us, the Taipei Chinese Food Festival cordially invite you to the exhibition taking place on TWTC Exhibition Hall from August 4 to 7, 2005.

Transportation: Suggest to take MRT to the Station of City Government, then transfer to bus, operating from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, every 10 to 15 minutes each, to venue.

Visitors to Taiwan are always awed by its natural beauty and amazed by its outstanding attractions. Equally as enticing for nearly everyone is the kaleidoscopic range of Chinese cuisine available throughout the subtropical island nation.

These days island chefs do far more than just replicate famous dishes from China's 5000 year old culinary culture.

They now strive to not only innovate their creations using modern concepts but ensure that dishes are healthy as well as tasty.

Each year master chefs showcase the best of Taiwan's traditional Chinese cooking as well as their most inventive dishes during a large-scale culinary event organised in Taipei.

This year the 16th Taipei Chinese Culinary Exhibition will be staged from 4 - 7 August in Hall A of the Taipei World Trade Centre.

Attacting up to 100,000 visitors each year, the event has always been popular with fine cuisine experts, the general public and gourmet-minded foreign visitors.

A major lure for foreign visitors is the opportunity to sample specialities from all parts of mainland China in safe and hygienic conditions.

As some of these cuisines are only available in remote parts of China a visit to the culinary expo is an affordable gourmet tour of China!

This year's Taipei Chinese Culinary Exhibition will also feature cooking classess, cooking contests and exhibitions on various types of ingredients such as bamboo or interesting spices.

The mega exhibition is easily navigable as posters and printed materials are well marked in English as well as Chinese.

A website has been set up to provide additional details as well as programme of events.

Log on to www.tcff.com.tw to learn more about the 2005 Taipei Chinese Culinary Exhibition.

In order to promote the more diversified and abundant tour resources, for the period of 2004 October to 2005 March, Department of Transportation of the Taipei City Government is presenting the colored drawing tour buses that printed in three types of themes? V tea, hot spring and parks. The three themes are the complimentary to the infamous Muzha Maokong tea culture, Peitou hot spring village and the beautiful nature up on YangMing Mountain. The tour buses are equipped with guiding pamphlets for visitors' reading reference; vivid voicing tour guidance is provided on tour buses to illustrate the sights and historical culture along the way so that buses are no longer the basic transportations, they have become the best traveling partners. The limited commemoration edition traveling pass is also publicized for the sale price of 650 dollars. The complete set includes one commemoration edition easy card (with $100 of stored value), tour bus free-ride tickets, hot spring hotel and amusement park's discount vouchers, an event pamphlet, the discount vouchers for thirty stores and delicate souvenirs or etc. The limited commemoration edition traveling pass can be purchased at all Family Mart of the Greater Taipei Region or at www.eztravel.com.tw of the EZ Travel Network.

If you feel that the sightseeing on land is not enough to satisfy your touring craze, Department of transportation has also published the seafood/meat dining combo, "Blue Highway Tour Set"; The Blue Highway Tour Set includes the Blue Highway ferry ticket, one day MRT pass, one day pass of tour buses that tour around three rivers, admission of amusement parks in Greater Taipei Region and discounts from some of the honorable stores alongside Blue Highway. Basically you can dine/drink/play around the Greater Taipei Region and enjoy good times simply by purchasing a passport. This passport can be purchased at all family mart and hi-life locations. Everyone is invited to come experience the abundant sightseeing of Taipei City. Related information can be acquired from Taipei City Department of Transportation Website:

http://ezgo.taipei-elife.net/homepage/bubutaipei/bubutaipei.htm

Tour Bus Routes and Scenic Spot

Tea Tour Bus: Taipei City Zoo, Zhang Shan Temple at the MaoKong region, Chang Nai-Miao Memorial Hall, Wen Shan City Resident Farm, MaoKong and Tea Exhibition Center.

Hot Spring Tour Bus: Thermal Valley, Peitou Hot Spring Museum, Taiwan Folk Arts Museum in Peitou, Longfong Valley, Peitou Park and the old dormitory of Bank of Taiwan in Peitou.

Park Tour Bus: YangMing Mountain National Park, ShiLin President Resident and the Lin Yu-Tang House

Kaohsiung -- the second largest city in Taiwan and one of the busiest sea ports in Asia -- success has won the right to host the 2009 World Games, the world's second-largest international sporting event after the Olympics.

The games will take place at sports facilities in Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County, and adjacent Pingtung County in southern Taiwan July 16-26, 2009.

More than 3,000 athletes from close to 90 countries are expected to take part in the events. Kaohsiung has tentatively selected croquet, tchouk ball, and dragon boat race among the demonstration events to be arranged by the host city.

The IWGA was founded in 1980 and the World Games is held once every four years starting in 1981. It is now the world's second-largest international sporting event after the Olympics. The World Games cover more than 30 sports that are not included in the Olympic Games.

The games were previously staged in the U.S., Britain, Holland, Finland, and Japan.

Taiwan has consistently sent delegations to take part in the World Games since its inception.

In the 6th World Games held in the Japanese city of Akita in 2001, Taiwan placed 13th among the 87 participating countries or areas. It's in medal count was even more than China's.

The 7th World Games will be held in Duisburg, Germany next year.

The formal announcement about the games in Taiwan was made by representatives of the International World Games Association (IWGA).

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian hailed the announcement, saying it will contribute to Taiwan's drive to play a more active role in the world arena.

"This is encouraging news for us," Chen said. "We are excited and grateful for being able to host the large multi-sports event in 2009."

On behalf of the Republic of China's government and its people, Chen extended his heartfelt thanks to the IWGA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IWGA is under the patronage of the IOC.

Noting that international sports meets provide a good platform for forging friendships and promoting world peace, Chen said bilateral and multilateral athletic exchanges should transcend political barriers.

However, Chen said, Taiwan had often failed in its attempts to host international sporting events in the past, simply because of China's opposition or boycott.

"So we are very pleased to obtain the rights to host the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung and the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei. We cherish these opportunities and will make every possible effort to ensure that the events proceed smoothly," Chen said.

Chen made the remarks while receiving IWGA President Ron Froehlich, and IWGA secretary-general Co Koren at the Presidential Office in Taipei.

Froehlich and Koren told Chen that after two years of extensive evaluations, the IWGA has decided to grant the right to Kaohsiung to host the 8th World Games.

Both Froehlich and Koren signed the formal agreement with Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh before being received by the president.

The signing ceremony and formal announcement had been kept quiet for fearing of possible interference and obstruction from China, which will host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

Hsieh said that his city is speedily making sound preparations for the games. The completion of the mass rapid transit network in the metropolitan area, a new stadium with 15,000 seats in the city, and the Taipei-Kaohsiung high-speed rail system will augment the success of the large-scale sports meet, he said.

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