The Taiwan Salt Museum in Tainan’s Qigu District (七股) has created two large sculpted models to mark Lovers’ Day — the Qixi Festival — on Thursday next week.
Using 60 tonnes of salt, one is a sculpture of the temple to the Chinese god of love and the other is of a Western-style cathedral.
The Qixi Festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
The replica of the temple of Yueh Lao (月老), also known as the “Old Man Under the Moon,” the Chinese god of love and marriage, is 4m long, 4m wide and 2.4m high, while the cathedral has a base of 4m by 4m and is 3m high, the museum said, adding that the two sculptures took 10 weeks to make.
Museum director Shih Jui-hsien (施瑞賢) said the museum is encouraging visitors to experience the sensation of lying down on beds and sofas made from salt.
The sculptures were unveiled on Wednesday last week and have proven popular with visitors, with some re-enacting poses commonly seen at weddings. Several photographs of visitors are also displayed.
The Chunghwa Post branch in the museum has a series of six Lovers’ Day postcards for sale.
Southwest Coat National Scenic Area Management Office Director Cheng Jung-feng said his office has seen some success since launching the sand and salt sculpture festival four years ago, adding that it hoped that civic organizations would take over the event.
The festival drew 350,000 visitors over the two months last year, the office said.
Authorities hope the museum’s sand sculptures, along with a sculpture exhibition in the Mashagou Coastal Resort Area in neighboring Jiangjun District (將軍), would draw more tourists to the area.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS