The 2022 Keelung City Expo kicked off on Friday with President Tsai Ing-wen in attendance at the opening ceremony. The event will run until June 19.
This year’s expo includes four major sites, as well as more than 50 exhibitions and art installations. Authorities in the northern metropolis are hoping to showcase recent efforts at revitalizing the city.
In the past, Keelung has consistently ranked near the bottom in surveys of citizen happiness in Taiwan.
During a speech at the opening ceremony, President Tsai said she hopes the expo can be a starting point for post-pandemic life in Taiwan. She says the southern part of the country is now seeing a peak in COVID-19 infections. In the north, on the other hand, infection numbers began swelling earlier and are now starting to drop. As a result, that part of Taiwan, which includes Keelung, is now starting to see glimpses of life returning to normal.
Tsai says the expo can help people see the changes that have happened in Keelung in recent years. It can also serve as an example of how to turn a city’s fortunes.
Keelung was one of the earliest sites of non-indigenous settlement in Taiwan. The Spanish established a fort in Keelung in 1626, after which the site was governed by a string of colonial and local administrations. It is now part of the Taipei-Keelung metropolitan area and Taiwan’s second-largest seaport.