The Yunlin County Government is inviting the public to a flower festival that will be held in Cihtong Township’s (莿桐) 50 hectare flower field — which is roughly the size of 1,145 basketball courts.
A field of colorful flowers greeted Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) as she rode on a wagon pulled by oxen to preside over the festival’s opening ceremony on Monday.
The festival was first held last year, and has been selected as one of the 10 most beautiful flower festivals in the nation.
To promote the event, the county government worked with the Cihtong Township Farmer’s Association to expand the field.
Association chief executive Chang Yu-hsuan (張鈺萱) said that different colored flowers were used to form shapes such as a heart, or the Chinese ligature xi (囍), made up of two xi (喜) characters, which means “double happiness.”
Chang added that the association had used straw to make effigies of mammoths, cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants and dinosaurs, and put them in the field to complement the flowers.
Visitors can find Cihtong Township by following Provincial Highway No. 1 after exiting at Siluo (西螺) junction, Chang said, adding that visitors should take a left turn on the outskirts of town onto the town’s ring road.
On taking a left turn after seeing the Yun 156 stretch of road, visitors will be able to see the flowers, Chang said, adding that as no special parking areas have been set up, visitors would have to park at the side of the road.
The county government has not yet made a plan to deal with a potential spike in tourist numbers during the festival, Chang said, adding that further information could be found on the county government’s Web site or on the Cihtong Township Farmers’ Association Web site.
The festival opens to the public on Saturday, and runs through the Lunar New Year holiday.
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