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'Fruit King of Taiwan' moved by goodwill gesture

By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-01 10:06

Huang Yi-chung turned up at Beijing's famed Bird's Nest stadium on Friday expecting to bid fiercely for the right to have his company's name emblazoned on the venue's 80,000 seats for an Aug 8 event.

Instead, he landed the deal for free.

"It's really a surprise I couldn't stop my legs from shaking at first. I believe it was done in the name of friendship," Huang told China Daily on Friday. He said the auction house gifted him the rights as a sign of friendship between the mainland and Taiwan.

Huang, who is known as the "Fruit King of Taiwan", owns the Nongzhixiang agricultural products company, which runs 18 franchised fruit stores on the Chinese mainland.

He was one of 10 bidders looking to land the right to have their companies' names printed on seat covers in the former Olympic stadium during the Italian Super Cup soccer match set for the first anniversary of the opening of the Beijing Games.

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"I was really excited to hear the decision made by the Beijing Yihai Auction Co Ltd to give me the naming rights for free, just a few minutes before the bidding was scheduled to start," he said.

Xu Yingde, the chief of Beijing Yihai Auction, told China Daily that the 10 would-be bidders included eight companies from the mainland, one from Taiwan and an artist.

There was no minimum bid, but bidders had been required to pay a deposit of 100,000 yuan ($14,700) before bidding.

"Most of the bidders had not arrived at the auction when we contacted them to inform them that it was canceled and that Huang's company got the naming rights for free," he said. "It is the best choice for the first anniversary of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and it shows the friendship between the people from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan," Xu said. He refused to say how much the free gift might have been worth.