More than 50,000 visitors crowded the Taipei International Flora Expo on the last day of trial operations yesterday, sparking renewed complaints of long lines and lack of signs in the parks.
Advance tickets to the Pavilion of Dreams — the most popular pavilion in the expo — were gone within an hour of the sites opening at 9am. Long lines formed in front of the Dream Theater and shuttle bus stations.
“I came to wait in front of the pavilion at 10:30am and the tickets were all taken. It’s ridiculous. The organizers should address the issue and allow every visitor to visit the pavilion,” 52-year-old Taipei resident Chen Chun-ying (陳群英) said
Expo organizing committee -executive director Chen -Hsiung-wen (陳雄文) said the committee would place advance-ticket machines in front of the Pavilion of Dreams, Pavilion of Truth, Taipei Story House, Pavilion of Regimen and the Celebrity’s House to control the number of visitors to the exhibitions and avoid long waits. All visitors to the five pavilions are required to take a number and enter the pavilions at the time designated on the number slip.
Concluding the 20-day trial operation, Chen said the committee would address major complaints — the lack of signs, English maps, garbage cans and restrooms — and fix all the problems before the grand opening on Saturday next week.
“We’ve been through various challenges in the past 20 days and we will use the following nine days to fix the problems and improve the quality of the expo,” he said.
Chen said the maximum capacity of the expo is about 160,000 people per day and the committee would implement flexible measures if the number of visitors surpassed that.
The expo will last until April 25. A total of 14 pavilions in -the Yuanshan Park, Xinsheng Park and Dajia Riverside Park areas will be open to the public during the six-month event.
The 20-day trial operation attracted more than 450,000 visitors and volunteers to the sites.
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