Taipei’s annual Lunar New Year market, which is to start on Saturday next week, is to be expanded to 10 streets and market areas, including the popular Dihua Street shopping area.
In addition to Dihua Street, the event is to be held at Rongbin Market (榮濱商店街), Taipei City Mall, Taipei Station Wholesale Market District (後車站商圈) and Huayin Street Shopping District (華陰街).
It would also cover Siping Yangguang Shopping District (四平陽光), Yuanlin Shopping District (沅陵街), Dongmen Yongkang Shopping District (東門永康), Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市) and Bangka Night Market (艋舺夜市), the Taipei Office of Commerce said in a statement, adding that it hopes the event would encourage people to visit the shopping areas and help counter a COVID-19 pandemic-induced business slump.
Photo: CNA
Taipei Deputy Mayor Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) told a news event to promote Lunar New Year shopping that the 10 areas each have their own unique character.
Huang would visit some of the areas to hand out “fortune money” envelopes to shoppers, wishing them good luck in the new lunar year, the office said.
The red envelopes, featuring a tiger design, would contain NT$1 and symbolize good fortune for the year of the tiger, the office said, adding that it hopes shoppers would welcome the new year with hope and optimism.
The annual market was first held in Dihua Street in 1996, as it is one of the most festive streets in Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday.
However, Dihua Street, which usually invites vendors from across Taiwan to set up stalls during the annual event, would not do so this year, Huang said, adding that the area would focus mainly on local shops.
Dihua Shopping District Development Association chairman Hsu Ching-chi (徐慶棋) said that not allowing additional stalls would help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The move would also enable pedestrians to stroll along the street more easily, Hsu added.
The Lunar New Year market was canceled last year due to COVID-19.
More information about the event, which is to run through Jan. 30, can be found on the commerce office’s Facebook page.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS