The Yangmingshan Flower Festival started yesterday, painting Yang-mingshan National Park with a colorful carpet of blooming flowers in the annual celebration of the beginning of spring.
The festival marks one of the year's most beautiful scenes at the park, with a wild variety of blooms such as cherry blossoms, azalea and camellia in pink, red and silk white creating a riot of color.
Despite yesterday's rain, the show still attracted crowds of visitors.
This year's flower festival, which runs until March 16, has been expanded by combining with other attractions that dotted the main routes leading to the Yangmingshan, including the Chungshan Fine Arts Park, Shihlin Official Residence, Shuanshi Park and the former residence of Lin Yu-tang (林語堂故居).
Organizers Taipei City's Division of Park & Street Lights under the Bureau of Public Works planted more than 600 new cherry blossoms to replace some of the older trees. The park houses a total of 1,660 cherry blossoms, according to the division.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma praised Taipei's location -- a basin surrounded by mountains -- for making the city one of the world's best cities as it is one of few with mountains less than 30 minutes from downtown.
"It is one of the best aspects of living in Taipei," Ma said.
The parks division, which held the flower festival in conjunction with the hot-spring activities in nearby Peitou, will also open special hot spring pools in Chienshan Park to offer visitors a free dip. The pools are open every day from 5am to 7pm during the 29-day flower festival.
To deal with the expected crowds, special traffic controls will be put into effect at weekends, when huge numbers of visitors travel to the mountain to enjoy the fresh air and fine weather.
To reach Yangmingshan, bus 260 from downtown Taipei drops visitors off at the Yangmingshan Visitors Center. Alternatively, take the Red 5 from the Chientan MRT station and bus 230 from Peitou. During the holidays, special buses for the flower festival will be provided, including bus 109 from Hsinglung Road, bus 110 from Neihu, bus 111 from Hsinchuang and bus 108, the Yangmingshan Tour Bus.
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