Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an departs for first U.S. trip in office

Taoyuan, Sept. 4 (CNA) Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Wednesday departed for his first visit to the United States since taking office in December 2022.

At Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chiang told reporters that the 10-day trip is aimed at promoting Taipei and exchanging city governance experiences.

Chiang noted that he is traveling with Taipei City Council Speaker Tai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) and several city councilors on the trip to learn about urban planning, transportation infrastructure and developments in the emerging technology sector.

According to the city government, the mayor and city councilors will start their tour in New York on Thursday (local time), where they will visit the New York Mets baseball team's home stadium Citi Field to see how the sports facility is managed and operated.

The delegation will next travel to Boston, a sister city of Taipei, on Sept. 8.

On Sept. 9, it will meet local city officials at the Massachusetts State House, while Chiang will deliver a speech at John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University that evening.

The mayor and councilors will visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the following day before traveling to Philadelphia, where they will visit the University of Pennsylvania and meet with Taiwanese students studying in the state.

The visits to the universities are planned to promote exchanges on policies focusing on youth, according to Chiang.

The U.S. trip concludes on Sept. 12, when the mayor and councilors fly back to Taiwan from New York.