A Day out at the 2009 Tainan International Boat Fair & Oceanic Culture Exhibition

Hoist the main brace, scrub the poop deck, and winch the yard arm into a satisfactorily-compliant-with-the-relevant-marine-statutes position! The 2009 Tainan International Boat Fair & Oceanic Culture Exhibition was held last month and brought together a whole lot of stuff that had a whole lot to do with water - especially the salty, briny kind. The purpose of the 2009 Tainan International Boat Fair & Oceanic Culture Exhibition is officially to:

"... create new values for the city, expand maritime industries and create economic values, while starting from static and dynamic displays to encourage all citizens to participate. At the end, we hope to promote Tainan City through integrated marketing and establish quality images of the country."

Yes, yes. I couldn't have put it better myself. I took that quote from the 2009 Tainan International Boat Fair & Oceanic Culture Exhibition website which can be found here .

I don't know about you but I find that a title like 2009 Tainan International Boat Fair & Oceanic Culture Exhibition is a little too long and cumbersome and by the time I get most of the way through saying it I've lost my cognitive grasp on the start of it. Perhaps, from now on, I'll just refer to it as the TIBFOCE2009. Ah yes, that's much better. And now I beg your indulgence as I continue to quote from the very quotable TIBFOCE2009 website regarding the government's hopes for the exhibition's effect on people:

"The City Government hopes to bring in the vision of development, natural landscaping, historic and cultural edges and the population yacht building industry to encourage people to get close to the sea, love the sea and do good deeds to the seas while improving their knowledge and experience about the cultural and historic monuments."

You have to be careful not to injure yourself on those 'cultural edges'. There is one more quote I will take from the website - the best quote by far. Right at the end of the Mayor of Tainan's speech found this gem:

"And may the event harbor great success."

I like that mayor. And that's in a second language too.


You can see a lot of TIBFOCE activity on the other side of the river. In the foreground (but behind my head) are the piers where fishermen tie up their boats.

Down in the water you can see a pier from which kayaks and canoes were being rented. For a while we toyed with the idea of buying our own kayak in Taiwan and plying the rivers of the city at dusk. But dusk is the best time for mosquitoes so we won't be doing that.