NEIWAN – The torch relay is now following a LOVE shaped route as it links 22 counties and cities across Taipei. The L and O parts of the torch relay were successfully completed. The first stop of the E part, the final part, of the LOVE torch relay was held in Hsinchu County on 4 August. The relay will then visit Hsinchu City, Taoyuan City, New Taipei City and then Keelung City in the following days. The E part relay not only connected all the cities/counties where the venues are located, but also welcome everyone to come enjoy the game and cheer for the athletes.
Hsinchu County torchbearers Jia-Feng Zhang and Wei-Lin Zhang passing the torch in front of Neiwan Train Station
The sacred flame handover ceremony of the E part relay was held at Hao Shen/Good God Cultural and Creative Park in Neiwan, Hsinchu County at 2 pm on 4 August. The event began with an invigorating performance of The Tung Flower Dance by Ju Meng Dance Troupe. Taipei Universiade Organising Committee (TUOC) attached great importance to the Hsinchu County leg of the torch relay. Taipei City Mayor Wen-Je Ko personally led Taipei’s torchbearer Shi-jia Lin as she handed the torch, representing love and peace, to Hsinchu County Deputy Magistrate Wen-Ke Yang. Shi-Jia Lin is a Hsinchu native and won a gold medal at the 2015 Gwangju Universiade in the women’s archery recurve bow event, as well as a bronze medal with the Chinese Taipei women’s archery team event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her previous success made her the pride of Hsinchu, so her return to her home county to serve as torchbearer for Taipei was especially meaningful.
Po-Ai Elementary School’s Ju Meng Dance Troupe and Bravo the Bear
In his speech, Taipei City Mayor Ko said that Taipei Universiade’s venues are in four other cites/counties as well as Taipei City, namely New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City. He thanked Hsinchu County and the three cities for enthusiastically supporting the Universiade and providing high quality sporting venues. At present, around 131 national teams/delegations have enrolled and the number of athletes who will participate is around 11,397. He specially invited the people of Hsinchu County to attend the opening and closing ceremonies, and go to the venues to watch the various competitions. In his speech, deputy magistrate Yang said that, based on the idea of “National LOHAS, Healthy City,” the aim is to make Hsinchu County a “smiling, LOHAS, Technology City”. He went on saying, with limited resources, the county successfully held the 2013 Taipei Lantern Festival, 2015 Taipei International Festival of Hakka Culture and the 2017 National Indigenous Games, all large-scale events that were well-received, also showing that the county has the ability to stage large scale national sporting events. Hsinchu County will stage the Universiade judo and wushu competition at the Hsinchu County Gymnasium, water polo at the Hsinchu County Natatorium, and football at Hsinchu County Second Stadium. The venues are all in tip-top shape and ready for action. These venues will provide spectators, athletes and coaches with the best quality stage for competition.
Taipei City Mayor Wen-Je Ko and Hsinchu County Deputy Magistrate Wen-Ke Yang exchanged gifts
To effectively market the distinctive local culture of Hsinchu County, the torch relay venue was the well-known tourist attraction, Neiwan Old Street in Hengshan Township. The relay started at Hao Shen/Good God Cultural and Creative Park, then went onto Neiwan Train Station, Neiwan Bridge, and then back to Hao Shen/Good God Cultural and Creative Park. After deputy magistrate Wen-ke Yang got the torch from Shi-jia Lin, he then passed the torch to Rung-Guang Tsai, Secretary General of Hsinchu County, as the county’s 1st torchbearer, symbolizing Hsinchu County’s full support for the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade and wishing the best for this grand event. Tsai then passed the torch to Hsinchu County’s torchbearer Jia-Feng Zhang (member of the Chinese Taipei 2017 Universiade women’s race walking team,) who passed the torch to Wei-Lin Zhang (member of the Chinese Taipei race walking team at the 2014 Junior Olympics,) who handed it to Xin-Fu Chen (member of the Chinese Taipei men’s archery recurve bow team at the 2014 Inchon Asian Games); and finally, the torch was passed to Xiang-Xuan Chen (member of Chinese Taipei’s men’s archery compound bow team for Taipei 2017 Universiade). The aforementioned torchbearers are all leading athletes in Hsinchu County and fully deserving of the honor of serving as Universiade torch relay torchbearers.
After the successful completion of the first stop of the E part of the torch relay’s LOVE route, the second stop will be held in Hsinchu City on 5 August.
(Source: OC Taipei 2017)