About 12 million visitors are expected to flock to Taoyuan over the next two weeks to attend the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which opens today.
The festival was first held in Taipei in 1989, and this year’s event is jointly organized by the Tourism Bureau and the Taoyuan City Government.
The Tourism Bureau said the festival is taking place on a site about 32 hectares in size, near the Taoyuan high-speed railway station.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
As this is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese zodiac, the main lantern — which is scheduled to be switched on by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tonight — features a 26m-high Monkey King, one of the main characters in the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West (西遊記).
The bureau said the festival is divided into six themed exhibition areas — technology, religion, fairy tales, culture, utopia and the history of Taoyuan.
Other highlights include the Universal Tower, a 10.2m-tall lantern made out of glass.
Photo: CNA
According to organizers, designers of the tower used 40,000 pieces of glass, and the creation was inspired by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Visitors can see images of the Milky Way lit up in the glass, the organizer said.
The Nakanocho Cart from Japan’s Chiba Prefecture is also to be exhibited at the festival — the cart’s first exhibition overseas.
The 7m-tall cart carries a statue of the first Japanese emperor, Jimmu, and has been in use for more than 100 years, organizers said, adding that it was brought to Taiwan to promote the Narita Gion Festival in Japan.
Five other cities or prefectures in Japan are also showing lanterns at the festival: Mihara, Hiroshima Prefecture, Kagawa Prefecture, Nagoya and Mie Prefecture, as well as representatives from Hokkaido.
The Taoyuan City Government is providing “mobile lantern buses” — a shuttle bus service that helps tourists navigate the exhibition area and narrates the city’s stories.
At a rehearsal last night, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said the festival combines technology and culture to highlight the importance of conserving energy and protecting the environment, adding that people are encouraged to take public transport to the festival.
More than 100 corporate sponsors are showing lanterns at the festival — a new record, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁) said, adding that this shows that the festival has established its reputation both at home and overseas.
A limited number of free handheld lanterns for children are to made available at 3pm today at service stations No. 7 and No. 15, the organizers said.
The annual event, which takes place on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, was named by the Discovery Channel as one of the world’s most noteworthy festivals.
In addition, during a report listing Taiwan as an up-and-coming travel destination, CNN recommended that international tourists visit the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
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