The flag-raising ceremony on New Year’s Day will, for the first time, include a festival with folk arts performances and a sports carnival to attract more people, the organizer said yesterday.
“Looking back on 2008, it might seem that there were ups and downs, but I hope that everyone can set aside their differences and gather in front of the Presidential Office on Jan. 1 to welcome a brighter new year,” Lo Ching-ping (羅清屏), chairman of the China Youth Career Development Association, told a press conference.
The organizers are planning various events and performances after the flag-raising celebrations, Lo said, in contrast to previous years when the crowds left after the ceremony.
Lo said the flag-raising ceremony would be held at the Presidential Office plaza at 6:30am on Jan. 1 and that the 46-year-old Taipei Jingmei Girls High School Choir would lead the crowd in singing the national anthem.
From 8am to 2pm, the plaza will host a carnival, with folk arts performances such as a leather-silhouette puppet show, paper-cutting, a 400-member lion dance, diablo, rope skipping and sports events, such as paint ball, bungy jumping and rock climbing, Lo said.
Special traffic controls will be in place around the Presidential Office plaza on New Year’s Day.
The controls will be effective from Wednesday at midnight until 7:30am on Thursday on Boai Road, Hengyang Road, Xiangyang Road, Zhongshan S Road, Aiguo W Road and Changde Street, Lo said.
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