An estimated 12 million domestic and international visitors are expected to flood into northern Hsinchu County in the next two weeks for the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival.
Because this year is the Year of the Snake on the Chinese zodiac, which is also called the “small dragon year,” the main lantern features a 20m high flying aquatic dragon and weighs about 26 tonnes in total. The main lantern is accompanied by four secondary lanterns, featuring the image of an elephant, a mound of gold ingots, a phoenix and a Chinese mythical hybrid creature called a Pixiu (貔貅).
Hsinchu County Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳) said the county had tried to combine technology and tradition in its presentation of the lanterns at the exhibition.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
In the festival’s “green” energy section, the highlight is a lantern called “Sustainable Ring” (永續之環), presented by the Taipei-based Delta Electronics. The lantern features a 270-degree projection screen that is 10m in height and nearly 70m in width. The exterior of the lantern is decorated with LED lighting.
Because Hsinchu County is known for its bamboo, wind and glass, the festival features a shining walking passage using all three elements.
To promote Hsinchu’s Hakka culture, the county government also uses a Hakka village near the Hsinchu High-Speed Rail Station as part of the lantern exhibition. It has also produced a 3D film promoting 12 major Hakka festivals, which will be displayed at the Hakka fortified-earth building.
Photo: CNA
Because the county is also the home of Taiwanese cartoonist Liu Hsing-ching (劉興欽), the festival has a special section featuring lanterns of cartoon characters drawn by Taiwanese cartoonists.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that the nation has been holding the festival for 24 years, and this was the first time that the festival was held in Hsinchu County.
The festival’s opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7pm today. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and other dignitaries are invited to light up the main lantern. Japanese singer Sachiko Kobayashi has been invited to sing a song of blessing at the ceremony as well.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
Prior to the opening ceremony at night, the county government will launch a parade at 1:30pm. The parade will include performers from Tokyo Disneyland and 16 other organizations.
Yeh said the exhibition site was located at the special development district of the high-speed rail in Hsinchu. The main lantern’s light show will also be displayed in conjunction with the schedule of the high-speed rail, which leaves from Hsinchu every half-hour.
To help carry the visitors to the exhibition, both the Taiwan Railway Administration and the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp have increased train services to meet the increase of passengers to Hsinchu over the next two weeks.
Yeh said the public was encouraged to take pubic transport to the exhibition. Should visitors need to drive, they are advised to park in the parking spaces designated by the Hsinchu County Government and take the shuttle buses to the site.
The festival will run from tomorrow until March 10.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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