The Taipei Yangmingshan Flower Festival began yesterday, with cherry blossoms and various types of azalea welcoming visitors.
More than 2,000 cherry trees and about 80,000 azalea plants will blossom during the festival, which runs until March 23.
Yen Chun-cheng (顏春城), director of Yangmingshan National Park’s Management Office, said Japanese cherry blossoms would bloom early next month, followed by Formosan cherry blossoms later in the month.
During the festival, a photo exhibition featuring Yangmingshan’s scenery will be held at Yangmingshan National Park’s Guangfu Building (光復樓). There will also be martial arts and lion dance performances, concerts, puppet shows and Chinese painting.
Yen said visitors could also spend the day touring nearby attractions, such as the Lin Yu-tang House and the Shilin Presidential Residence, which is holding a show featuring various types of roses.
Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), director of Taipei City’s Traffic Police Division, urged visitors to take public transportation to the park. Traffic controls will be imposed on Yangde Boulevard (仰德大道), the main route into the Yangmingshan area, starting today.
Private cars without a permit will not be permitted to use the road to enter the park between 6am and 4pm, or to exit the park from 2pm to 6pm, Fang said.
Visitors can take buses to the park from Jiantan (劍潭), Shilin (士林), Xinbeitou (新北投), Yuanshan (圓山), Shipai (石牌) and Taipei Main Station MRT stations.



