Cherry trees bloomed on the winding road leading to Yangmingshan National Park at the start of the annual Yangmingshan Flower Festival in Taipei yesterday.
This year's festival, which runs through March 2, opened at various locations throughout the city.
In addition to more than 2,000 cherry trees in Yangmingshan National Park, the festival features azaleas, camellias, peach blossoms and hydrangeas, among other plants and flowers.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Teddy Kao (高道涵), spokesman for Taipei City's Parks and Street Lights Office, said about 50 percent of the flowers are in full blossom thanks to recent low temperatures, with more flowers expected to bloom during the Lunar New Year holidays.
At yesterday's opening ceremony, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
He urged the public to take advantage of public transportation to avoid traffic jams around the park during the festival.
Kao suggested that visitors spend a day touring nearby attractions -- including the Lin Yu-tang House and the Shilin Presidential Residence, which is holding a rose show featuring various kinds of roses -- besides enjoying the flower festival.
Taipei City's Transportation Department said that, traffic control will be enforced along Yangde Boulevard. On weekends, a checkpoint will be established at Fuxing Bridge from 6am to 4pm to control vehicles entering the Yangmingshan area.
City-bound traffic will also be controlled at Lane 43 of Yangming Road, Section 1, from noon to 6 pm.
For traffic control information, call 02-2759-9741 and for bus route inquiries 0800-223-650.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS