Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan had lunch with Columbia University students after walking in Central Park with President Tsai Ing-wen on the morning of July 13 (US time). During lunch, the students showed care toward Taiwan’s future and proposed several young and vibrant ideas. Mayor Cheng said that he benefits a lot from the gathering. Mayor Cheng later went to Seattle and attended the dinner banquet hosted by local Taiwanese communities. Mayor Cheng connected with local Taiwanese communities and shared with them his experience and gains of this trip. He also expresses gratitude to the hospitality of Taiwanese communities that allows him to feel the warmth from home.
On the morning of July 14 (US time), Mayor Cheng visited the Museum of Flight. Mayor Cheng stated that the location of the Aerotropolis project was a navy base, the base of the Black Cat Squadron. The city government sees it as a cultural heritage and has established the Aviation Museum to preserve the history. He visited the Museum of Flight of the Boeing Company to gain insight for the Aviation Museum, which will be relocated to a different place in the future, so that the Aviation Museum can be one key site in the Aerotropolis project.
Mayor Cheng pointed out that the Black Cat Squadron is an important cultural heritage. The city government plans to build a 10-hectare Black Cat Memorial Park to preserve important facilities of the squadron, including the airport shed, the hangar, the photo reconnaissance room, and the Little White House where the US Army used to be deployed, and to further restore and revitalize these facilities to make the park an important historical and cultural landmark.
Mayor Cheng said that the Aerotropolis project will adopt a better resettlement measure and the best development model so that it can be completed as scheduled and in good quality. The industry zone of the project will introduce six key industries, including aerospace maintenance, warehousing and logistics, cloud service, green energy, smart vehicles, and biomedicine. At present, the number of logistics companies in Taoyuan has exceeded 1,800, and along with the development of e-commerce, Taoyuan has become the largest logistics base in Taiwan.