Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/04
By: Yang Ming-chu and Joseph Yeh 

Tokyo, Feb. 4 (CNA) An ice sculpture depicting Yushan, Taiwan’s tallest mountain, and the historic Kaohsiung railway station building was unveiled in Hokkaido on Monday at the opening of the annual Sapporo Snow Festival, one of the world’s largest winter carnivals.

The 10-meter-tall, 18-meter-wide sculpture combining the two Taiwanese landmarks was unveiled at the Odori Site of the festival during a ceremony witnessed by Kuo Chung-shi (郭仲熙), Taiwan’s deputy representative to Japan, and local politicians.

Kuo thanked festival organizers for again creating a Taiwan-themed ice sculpture for the annual event, which attracts around 2.5 million visitors a year from around the world. It was the eighth consecutive year a Taiwan-themed sculpture has been on display at the festival.

Kuo praised the close decades-long ties between Taiwan and Hokkaido, noting the 600,000 visits Taiwanese made to Hokkaido in 2018 and the memorandums of understanding the Japanese prefecture has signed with Taipei and Kaohsiung.
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