Left to right: Erica Lee, consular officer, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta; Christopher Smith, the delegation's host on behalf of the Macon Sister Cities Committee; Ren-Yih Lin, deputy mayor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Mrs. Lin; Diana Wallace, a paralegal in Mr. Smith’s law office; and Henry C.F. Hwang, chief, International Affairs Division, Kaohsiung.

Erica Lee, consular officer, and Nicole Denison, special assistant to the director general, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta, visit the Otis Redding exhibition at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon.

The deputy mayor of Macon’s Taiwanese sister city, Kaohsiung, arrived for the Middle Georgia city’s 26th Cherry Blossom Festival March 28 as the Georgia General Assembly was considering cutting funding for the city's Georgia music and sports halls of fame.

While hundreds of thousands of visitors flocked to Macon to enjoy the blossoming Yoshino cherry trees and a diverse range of activities including air and fashion shows, Ren-Yih Lin headed to the halls of fame, which many state legislators think should be self-supporting.

Mr. Lin did not comment about the possible budget cutbacks for Macon's attractions, but as a fervent spokesman for tourism as a positive force for economic development, he was effusive about his city's preparations for the 2009 World Games next year.

Kaohsiung City, he said during an interview with GlobalAtlanta at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, would benefit for years to come from its preparations for the World Games.

He added that Kaohsiung also would benefit from Taiwan’s two-year, $31.5 million tourism initiative underway, which would help attract visitors to the games in next July.

A stadium that can accommodate a crowd of 55,000 and is to be powered by solar energy is almost completed, representing an investment of $150.6 million.  The stadium will host sports activities including Frisbee competitions and baseball games.

A second new stadium will provide a venue for martial arts, gymnastics and other sports. Six other stadiums are being renovated for the games, he added, for the more than 30 sporting events ranging from archery to tug of war.

The city also is to have two new mass transit lines by the time of the games, the first having opened in March.

In addition, the city plans to build a light rail line around the city and and upgrade its port as further efforts to attract foreign investment.

Just as Atlanta did in its preparations for the 1996 Olympic Games, Kaoshiung will mobilize a large number of volunteers and arrange for a large number of cultural programs.

The World Games started in 1981 under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee for sporting events not included in the Olympics.

Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s second largest city with a population of some 1.5 million. It has a an industrial base that includes the production of aluminium, wood and paper products
fertilizer, cement, metals, machinery and ships.