Min-Tsai Hsu, mayor of Hsinchu, signs an agreement with the Taiwan Pavilion's operator, Taipei World Trade Center.

Hsinchu will erect the pavilion in an old fertilizer factory and create an industrial innovation park there to showcase the city's history, culture, folk art and tradition.

The Taiwan Pavilion will be relocated in Hsinchu, Taiwan, after the Expo and will reopen as an innovation and exhibition center in October 2011, Min-Tsai Hsu, mayor of Hsinchu, said yesterday.

Hsu signed an agreement yesterday with the pavilion's operator, Taipei World Trade Center, at the World Expo after his city won a bidding to buy the pavilion with 459 million Taiwan dollars (US$14.45 million).

The city competed with Miaoli County and Haur Luen Enterprise, a stationery manufacturer in Taichung County, in September 16 tender.

Hsinchu will erect the pavilion in an old fertilizer factory and create an industrial innovation park there to showcase the city's history, culture, folk art and tradition.

The pavilion, featuring a giant globe inside a transparent cube, is a glass-and-steel structure. Its exterior is painted with the scenery of Taiwan. Stones from Jade Mountain and soil from Yin-Ko Town were also used in its construction.