Despite the depressing state of the economy, cities and counties around the nation are set to celebrate the Lantern Festival (元宵節) today with an array of festivities, including releasing sky lanterns, shooting firecrackers and hosting several outdoor lantern exhibitions.
It is estimated that all the events will attract around 17 million visitors over the coming two weeks.
This year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival, themed “Plowing Together for Prosperity and Strength,” will mark the 20th anniversary of the annual festivity. The event will be held in Ilan for the first time and is set to kickoff at 7pm when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will light up the main lantern, an 18m golden ox.
In addition to displaying the largest lantern that the Taiwan Lantern Festival has ever seen, starting at 7pm, a three-minute light show will be held every 30 minutes. A firework display will also be held each evening during the festival, which will run through Feb. 22.
Authorities estimate that 300,000 visitors will attend the fsestival today, adding that this weekend and next weekend are expected to be very crowded. As such, the Ilan County Government is calling on visitors to take public transportation as much as possible.
In the capital, the Taipei City Lantern Festival will be held at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and the City Hall Plaza. The city government said the main display, “Mo-mo Cow,” was lit yesterday, and had attracted 350,000 visitors on the first day.
Tonight the festival will showcase “virtual lanterns” designed by visual artists as well as eight folk artists, with 24 high-tech projectors utilizing the exterior walls of Taipei City Hall as a screen and displaying “lanterns” based on folklore.
The 15-day Taipei County Pingsi International Sky Lantern Festival, which began on Jan. 26, will climax today at 6pm when 2,000 sky lanterns will be released in 12 waves.
In the past two weeks, Taipei County Government handed out 8,000 free sky lanterns, the county said, adding that today it expects the festival to attract 60,000 visitors.
In Miaoli’s Hakka townships, 15 teams of dragon dancers will parade through a crowd of thousands in a traditional celebration called “bombing the dragon [ 龍].”
A vessel owned by Taiwan’s cargo container shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp caught fire after an explosion occurred in a container on board while the ship was at the busy Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in eastern China on Friday. Yang Ming Marine confirmed the incident and said a preliminary investigation found that the explosion occurred in a container on its vessel, the YM Mobility, which reportedly arrived in Ningbo early on Friday morning after its last call in Shanghai. “Immediate fire control measures were taken, and the situation is now under control,” Yang Ming Marine said in a statement. “All crew
‘UNITING TAIWAN’: While the boxer’s home town is offering free train and sports center access, stores around the nation are offering discounts to celebrate her victory New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday declared Aug. 12 “Lin Yu-ting Day” after the Taiwanese boxer won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg category at the Paris Olympics. Lin’s hometown is in the city’s Yingge District (鶯歌). The final between Lin and Poland’s Julia Szeremeta was broadcast live at the city hall early yesterday morning, where Hou, Lin’s mother and more than 200 people rooted for her. Thunderous roars and applause erupted at the city hall when the referee lifted Lin’s hand to show she had won. To celebrate Lin’s hard-won victory, Aug. 12 would be designated Lin
The number of foreign students attending Taiwanese universities last year dropped 9.46 percent from 2019, mainly due to a marked decline in the number of Chinese students, the National Audit Office said in a report. Last year, there were 116,038 foreign students — 67,299 degree students and 48,739 non-degree students — a decrease of 12,119, or 9.46 percent, from 128,157 in 2019, the report said. China in 2020 stopped allowing Chinese students to study in Taiwan, saying that COVID-19 pandemic controls and “the cross-strait situation” were the reasons for the change. Chinese who had already come to Taiwan were allowed finish their
HUGE UPGRADE: Once Terminal 3 is completed, the airport’s passenger service capacity would expand to 82 million travelers per year from 37 million, an official said The north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 is scheduled to begin operations in the middle of next year, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday. The Terminal 3 project was launched as the number of air travelers accessing the nation’s largest international airport each year has already exceeded the combined capacity of terminals 1 and 2. The two existing terminals were designed to be accessed by 37 million air travelers per year. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, about 48.36 million accessed the airport in 2019. The airport operator yesterday organized a field trip for reporters to see Terminal 3 construction