Taipei’s New Year Countdown Party will attract more than 800,000 people, the Taipei City Government said yesterday as it unveiled the annual activity’s celebrity guests and event schedule.
The annual event will start at 7pm on Monday in front of Taipei City Hall, with TV personalities Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Plungon (浩角響起) hosting the party.
Pop stars including Hong Kong singer Aaron Kwok (郭富城), Taiwanese diva A-mei (張惠妹) and singer Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) will give performances until 1am on Tuesday.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said the city’s countdown party has become one of the most popular New Year’s Eve activities in Taiwan, and expected this year’s lineup to attract more than 800,000 people.
“We put a lot of effort into improving the annual New Year Countdown Party every year to meet the public’s expectation. We believe that this year’s lineup will attract a record-breaking number of people,” he said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will also attend the event and join the crowd to count down to the Year 2013, the Department of Information and Tourism said.
Photo: Chou Min-hong, Taipei Times
Taipei 101 spokesman Michael Liu (劉家豪) said the annual fireworks show at one of the world’s tallest buildings will feature 22,000 rounds of fireworks that will be launched over 188 seconds, along with specially tailored music — an adaptation of The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky — with the theme “Swing for the Future.”
Traffic control measures will be imposed in Xinyi District (信義) on Monday. Taipei Rapid Transportation Corp (TRTC) will provide 42-hour non-stop service on all MRT lines beginning on Sunday. Trains are set to run every 2.15 minutes at peak hours.
After the countdown party, Taipei City’s Department of Transportation will dispatch 160 shuttle buses to help passengers leave the Xinyi District from 12am to 2:30am on Tuesday. Passengers can take the buses at any bus stops in the area.
Main New Year’s Eve celebrations:
Taipei City
Time and location: The plaza in front of Taipei City Hall, 7pm to 1am.
Acts: Harlem Yu (庾澄慶), Shin Band (信樂團), Jeannie Hsieh (謝金燕), A-lin (黃麗玲), Evan Yo (蔡旻佑), Aaron Kwok (郭富城) and A-mei (張惠妹).
Event budget: NT$8 million.
Taipei 101 Fireworks: NT$30 million.
Estimated crowd size: More than 800,000.
Special program: Taipei 101 will set off 22,000 fireworks over 188 seconds.
Greater Taichung
Time and location: The parking lot of the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium from 7:00 pm to 00:30 am.
Acts: S.H.E., Dream Girls, Meifen Chen (陳美鳳), Lala Xu (徐佳瑩), Della (丁噹), Roomie Band and Wang Tsai-hua (王彩樺).
Event budget: NT$7 million.
Estimated crowd: 200,000.
Special program: Fireworks and countdown with S.H.E.
Yunlin County
Time and location: Janfusun Park in Gukeng from 7:30pm to midnight.
Acts: Shadya Lan (藍又時), No Name Band and Eason Xie (謝博安) and Rachel Liang (梁文音).
Event budget: NT$10 million.
Estimated crowd: 30,000.
Special program: Giant Ferris wheel fireworks set off over 600 seconds.
Chiayi County
Time and location: Alishan Railroad Station from 7:30pm to 9:30pm.
Acts: Taichung Philharmonic Orchestra, Lin Yu-chun (林育群), Francesca Kao (高慧君), Jinsiou Singing Duo (錦繡二重唱).
Event budget: NT$3 million.
Estimated crowd: between 10,000 and 20,000.
Special program: New Year’s Eve party held at the nation’s highest elevation as well as the sunrise viewing on Jan. 1.
Greater Tainan
Time and location: The plaza in front of Tainan High Speed Rail Station from 6pm to 1am.
Acts: Crowd Lu (盧廣仲), Dog-G (大支), Anthony Neely (倪安東), Amber An (安心亞) and Jeannie Hsieh (謝金燕).
Event budget: NT$8 million.
Estimated crowd: 150,000.
Special program: Three-in-one festive event (watching sunset, viewing sunrise and welcoming New Year’s Day).
Greater Kaohsiung
Time and location: Kaohsiung Time Avenue from 7pm to 1am.
Main featuring stars: Mayday (五月天), David Tao (陶).
Event budget: NT$6 million.
Estimated crowd: 500,000.
Special program: Fireworks at Kaohsiung New Asia Harbor set off over 180 seconds.
Greater Kaohsiung
Time and location: Kaohsiung EDA World 高雄義大世界 from 7pm to 1am.
Acts: Hu Gua (胡瓜), Amber An (安心亞), Tien Hsin (天心), Jeannie Hsieh (謝金燕) and Sodagreen (蘇打綠).
Event budget: Not available.
Estimated crowd: 500,000.
Special program: Fireworks set off over 9 minutes and 9 seconds.
Information compiled by local news center and staff writer Jason Pan
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching