The opening ceremony of the 2007 Taiwan Oranges Festival was held at the Gukeng Green Tunnel Park at 10 am on December 8. The entire green tunnel and park were decorated with many creative orange art works which made the entire event full of orange artistic decorations and created an ambience of plentiful harvest. The event staff guided Minister Su Jia-Chuen of the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan and former Executive Yuan Premier Hsieh Chang-Ting to tour the green tunnel, and gave free oranges to participants along the way. The festival opened after Minister Su, former Executive Yuan Premier Hsieh, and Deputy Magistrate Lin Yuan-Chuen and Gukeng Township Supervisor Lin Hui-Ru make a toast with orange juice.  
 
Minister Su of the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan said during his speech that orange is rich in vitamins. Yunlin County produces approximately 70% of the total orange output in Taiwan, and Gukeng Township has the largest orange cultivation and production area. Moreover, modern people still do not completely understand the production process and uses of oranges. Therefore, the main purpose of this festival is to promote the benefits and nutritional value of oranges to people, and demonstrate the use of orange in artistic decorations in our everyday life. The orange Christmas tree, elaborately decorated by many artists, broke the Guinness World Records, and is one of the key features of the festival. Furthermore, other artistic orange decorations are creative and of high standards. These creative art works are rarely seen in Taiwan. Local people can come to Gukeng and view these artistic decorations without going to France. All are welcome to participate in this festival. Bring your family along and have a cup of the world renowned Taiwanese coffee.  
 
 
Deputy Magistrate Lin Yuan-Chuen said that Taiwanese coffee and high quality oranges have become unique agricultural products of Gukeng Township. In order to allow people around Taiwan to know that Gukeng produces the highest quality orange, Gukeng Green Tunnel was chosen as the venue for this event. He encouraged people to purchase more Gukeng oranges and other agricultural products. The harvest period of orange is from November to January of the next year. This is also the best time to taste the orange. However, he hopes that everyone can drink a cup of orange juice or eat a couple of fresh oranges each day which are beneficial for your health and beauty.  
 
 
The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Yunlin County Government, organizer of this festival, said that the one-month festival will not only exhibit artistic orange decorations, but the festival will invite famous artists and performing arts groups to perform. The festival also features fancy orange juice cocktails, incredible orange peeling demonstrations, Middle East belly dancing, manual juice squeezing competition, cultural performances and a number of interesting competitions. We welcome everyone to participate in the festival.