Saturday night saw the lighting of Taiwan’s first Christmas tree on water by Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) on the waterfront of his city’s Willow River (柳川).
The city this year moved its annual Christmas festival, which was previously held on the New City Hall Plaza, to the riverside.
A popular attraction in Taichung, the river was reopened on Christmas Eve last year after the completion of a renewal project.
Photo: Huang Chung-shan, Taipei Times
The Willow River used to be severely polluted with industrial waste, became a dirty ditch and was often criticized by local residents, Lin said.
After improvements by the city, the river has taken on a brand new look and become the city’s most popular check-in location on Facebook, Lin said.
The Christmas tree is 9m high, the city government said, adding that the tree’s design was based on the imagery of an overflowing river and incorporates images from the World Flora Exposition, which is to be held in Taichung next year.
The waterfront also features interactive art, including shadow play and 3D “flower seas.”
The lighting exhibition, which also opened on Saturday, uses LED lights to decorate the waterfront with different shapes — including a large gift box, tulips and roses — and a light-tunnel under a bridge.
The lighting exhibition will be on view until March 4, the city government said.
At the lighting ceremony, Lin also made two announcements.
Lin said the city has received funding from the central government for the second phase of the Willow River renewal project, which is to begin next year and would preserve the beauty of the waterfront.
Lin also said the renovation of the 800m Green River (綠川) is to be completed by February.
The rivers will make Taichung beautiful again and the old town area will shine like never before, Lin said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS