The Taiwan Lantern Festival has kicked off in Taoyuan City, northern Taiwan. President Ma Ying-jeou presided over the lighting ceremony to launch the festival.
Nearly 540,000 people (536,686) showed up on Sunday for a sneak peek during the soft opening. Deputy Transportation Minister Tseng Dar-jen said the festival has become a must-see event, not just in Taiwan, but around the world.
“This year is the 27th annual Taiwan Lantern Festival," said Tseng. "It’s already become an international brand. For the last three years, major international media like Discovery and CNN have recommended the festival to tourists from around the world, and have listed it as an event that’s worth attending. The tourism bureau has been working with local governments for a long time to establish this brand.”
The theme of this year’s lantern festival is “technological dreams, and alluring cultures”. Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan said that the festival has a lot of high-tech features, including optoelectronics, energy saving fixtures, and interactive design. He said that will enable visitors to not only enjoy the traditional lanterns, but also to appreciate Taiwan’s technological prowess.
Cheng said that this year’s festival also boasts nearly a dozen superlatives, including the tallest-ever theme lantern, and the largest display area in history with over a thousand displays.
Visitors to this year’s festival will see a whole host of lanterns that are related to Taoyuan County. One display, sponsored by China Airlines, is shaped like terminal one of Taiwan’s main airport, which is located in Taoyuan. It features lanterns shaped like airplanes taking flight.
Another of the festival's many theme areas is dedicated to lanterns representing the different nationalities and ethnicities of Taoyuan’s residents. There are also lanterns representing Taiwan’s outlying islands, seven cities in Japan, as well as Hong Kong and Macau.