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Updated Sunday, July 25, 2010 8:42 pm TWN, The China Post news staff

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Seeds sewn by Flora Expo will take time to blossom

While the name Flora Expo (or 花博 in Chinese) is everywhere in the city, many might not know the actual significance of the event. The official website of Flora Expo described the event as a prestigious “category A2/B1 horticulture exposition,” but does not clearly explain what that means.

The category A2/B1 can be recognized as the second highest category of horticulture expositions under the AIPH.

There are four categories of exhibitions listed by the BIE (A1, A2, B1, B2). The A1 category is the highest class of exhibitions (large long duration international exhibitions) such as the Shanghai World Expo.

The A2 category represents short-duration, large-scale international exhibitions with at least six joining nations and can last no longer than 20 days, while B1 stands for long-duration (three to six months) horticultural exhibitions with international participation.

The Taipei expo, with potential exhibitors from 31 nations passing the second stage of evaluation by the organizer and a six month duration, is therefore a mix of the A2 and B1 category (hence A2/B1) and is second in scale only to the A1 (World Expo-class) events.

To further complicate the issue, there is actually no one unifying name for international horticulture exhibitions. These events are recognized and authorized by the AIPH in accordance to their scales and durations but are not serialized activities such as the World Expo, the Olympics or the World Cup.

The next exhibition similar in scale and duration to the Taipei Flora Expo, for example, is the six-month Xi'an International Horticultural Exhibition 2011. Between the two there is the shorter event Euroflora in Genoa, Italy and the smaller BUGA in Koblenz, Germany. In fact, according to the AIPH calendar, rarely a month goes by without some form of international horticulture exhibition going on.

The Taipei Int'l Flora Expo, in other words, is different to events such as the World Expo, the Olympics and the Deaflympics, well-known festivals recurring only in a long interval. It should not be marketed as such but should be advertised as it is — an important international exhibition for a major industry (horticulture) to which Taiwan, the Kingdom of Orchid, has special influence.

The organizer of the Taipei International Flora Expo has set the goal rightly by hoping to transform Taipei into a “city of gardens” but at least for the time being the most visible faces of the expo are not Taipei's gardens or plants but pop singers Wu Bai (apparently for his classic Mandarin song “You are My Flower”) and Jody Chiang as well as the high-tech venues.

By truly celebrating the essence of the Flora Expo and also of Taiwan — the beauty of nature in everyday life, the organizer can help Taipei citizens support the event and also help international visitors to savor the charm the city has to offer.

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