Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Sunday, February 28, 2010 2:52 pm TWN, By Jamie Wang, Supplement writer



	From left: Lantern artist Lin Chien-erh (林健兒), Janice Lai (賴瑟珍), director-general, Tourism Bureau, Chiayi City Mayor Huang Ming-Hui (黃敏惠), Lee Yen-song (李炎松), deputy general manager of Chunghwa Telecom, Johnson Chiang (蔣祖雄), president of The Grand Hotel, and Chou Ching-shyong (周慶雄), chairman of the Taiwan Visitor Association. (Courtesy of Chiayi City, Tourism Bureau) Enlarge Photo

Sponsors
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.

Discount Hotel Rates

Chiayi City hosts Taiwan Lantern Festival

Participants of all ages are also encouraged to draw their ideas on 600 plain lanterns distributed by local elementary schools.

The city and Tourism Bureau drafted a budget of NT$130 million for the festival, which Huang believes will generate business revenues of more than NT$1.68 billion.

He said: “We expect to have an average of 420,000 people coming into the town each day. Supposing each person spends NT$500 a day, the 8-day event will generate that much money for local businesses.”

The festival will be staged in Chiayi City's busiest area, which features several top tourist attractions including the famous 500 meter Wenhua Rd. Night Market (文化路夜市). “The market is very close to the festival venues, so people can come here to quench their thirst for fun, food, and more,” said the mayor.

The celebrations connect most of the city's main attractions, “including the almost 100-year-old Chiayi Park, the Chiayi City Historical Relic Museum (嘉義市史蹟資料館), and business areas such as Daya Road and Wenhua Road,” Huang explained, stressing that “we welcome everyone to enjoy the rich cultures in Chiayi.”

The city has also set up several special venues for the occasion such as the “Military Dependents' Village Area” (眷村特區). Huang said: “That place used to be an actual village for military dependents. The area belongs to the Ministry of National Defense, and we're glad to have its support.”

Whilst the venues are limited to the area around the park, the colorful decorations will be displayed throughout the city. “We hope to make the whole city the host of the event,” said the mayor.

Visitors will get a taste of the festivities as soon as they alight the train, for a lantern in the shape of Taiwan's famous Alishan alpine train has been placed in front of Chiayi Station (嘉義車站) to greet guests.

The mayor stated that traffic controls will be implemented in many parts of the city, adding: “Chiayi City is pretty small; we strongly suggest that people fully utilize the mass transportation systems.”

Visitors may take the bullet train, Taiwan High Speed Rail, to Chiayi Station and enjoy a free ride on the city's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to the party venues.

1|2

Comments

March 3, 2010 chang_249@

I went to the festival but think that it should be better organized to attract more people specially tourists from all over the world. Negative comments are: no seats to sit after walking around for many hours, no seats for spectators to see the programs offered only for VIP, no well done rest places with drinking water, rest place for family with little children, transportation was mixed within the public one making it very crowded and slow and inefficient.