The annual Taipei Yangmingshan Flower Festival opens tomorrow, with more than 2,000 cherry trees and about 80,000 azalea plants expected to give visitors an eyeful over the monthlong festival.
Other areas near the park, including Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence, Shuangxi Park, Lin Yu-tang House, the Floriculture Experiment Center and Qianshan Park, will serve as venues for the festival, which runs until March 20, said Yen Chun-cheng (顏春城), director of Yangmingshan National Park’s Management Office.
Yen said the cold weather had delayed the flower blooming season by about 10 days, with Japanese cherry and Formosan cherry blossoms expected to be in full bloom from later this month until the middle of next month.
During the opening ceremony tomorrow, musician Matthew Carl Lien will perform at Yangmingshan Park. Several local artists have also been invited to present a floricultural show.
At the Chiang Kai-shek residence, more than 200 kinds of roses — including rare varieties — will be on display.
Taipei City’s Traffic Police Division urged visitors to take public transportation to the park. Public buses that run to the park include bus Nos. 260 (from Dongyuan to Yangmingshan), 230 (from MRT Beitou Station to Yangmingshan) and Red 5 (from MRT Jiantan Station to Yangmingshan).
Traffic control measures will be implemented from tomorrow on Yangde Boulevard, the main route to the Yangmingshan area. Vehicles entering the Yangmingshan area on weekends will be checked at Fuxing Bridge from 6am to 4pm. City-bound traffic will be checked at Lane 43 of Yangming Road, Sec 1, from noon until 6pm.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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