“2017 Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival” will take place on December 23rd and end on January 7th next year at Houli Flower Farm Greenway. This year, with integrating the Floral Expo with the feature of “the sound of blooming”, there are three highlights exhibition districts, five major interactive installations and ten major creativity exhibitions in the venue covering the area of 22 hectares. Moreover, a Taiwan first giant interactive flower music box “Blooming Hill Cherry” will be introduced. Free admission is available for everyone daily from 8:30am to 4:30pm. There are also 5 buses providing free shuttle service. Citizens are encouraged to reach the venue by shuttle bus and make the trip environmental-friendly.

A press conference by the Tourism and Travel Bureau was held on the 19th, and several government officials, legislators and city council members including the Deputy City Mayor Lin Ling-san, the Head of Tourism and Travel Bureau Chen Sheng-shan, the Director of Office of Government Ethics Zhang Rong-gui, the Deputy Director of Department of Transportation Feng Hui-sheng, the Legislator Hong Ci-yong, the City Council member Chen Ben-tian and Weng Mei-chun, and the representative of the Legislator Zhang Liao Wan-jian’s office and the representative of the City Council member Chen Zheng-xian’s office joined the activation ceremony and announced the official start of the Flower Carpet Festival this year.

Deputy City Mayor indicated that the Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival held last year at Xinshe, and now it takes place at Houli Flower Farm Greenway and has won visitors’ great appreciation. The rehabilitation of the Houli Flower Farm Greenway is successfully completed. The city government turned the landfill into a highlighted ecological park, which is not only the venue of the Flower Carpet Festival, but also a green field for citizen’s daily leisure.

This year, the city government didn’t adapt the method of arraying flower pots for display, instead, more than 10 types of beautiful flower seeds were scattered in a wide coverage in the hope of creating an endless sea of flowers. And after the festival, the site can be plowed over and become the green fertilizer that makes the landfill turned into a rich ground with strong vitality.

Deputy City Mayor Lin indicated that the Flower Carpet Festival featuring “the sound of blooming” presents not only a wide range sea of flowers, there is also a Taiwan’s first giant flower interactive music box taking the “Hill Cherry” the flower of Taichung as the design concept with the height of 6.2 meters and the diameter of 43 meters. The outlook of the Hill Cherry is surrounded by the embellishment of five flower species symbolizing Taichung including Lily, Cosmos, hill cherry. The music box plays music in half-hour interval, the flower pedals will bloom with the music to reveal the beautiful vision appeal of the floral mutualism.

He also mentioned that Houli will be one of the exhibition areas of the 2018 Taichung World Floral Exposition. This Flower Carpet festival is a warm up to the expo. The city government team has planned 5 shuttle bus routes with deliberation that improve the traffic and flower management in the past. Citizens are welcome to view the flowers with enthusiasm.

Legislator Hong Ci-yong indicated that she is the daughter of Houli, and she is so pleased that the Flower Carpet Festival can be moved and held in Houli. The local people have given great evaluation to this act. With the Floral Exposition next year, a series of activity will make Taichung full of vitality. In addition to the Flower Carpet Festival, the city government also holds the Christmas Lighting Festival in Liuchuan. The city government has arranged shuttle bus with convenient route for transportation. At night, visitors can enjoy the Christmas trees and the sea of lights in Liuchuan. Welcome the public reach the venue by taking the public transportation.

Headof Tourism and Travel Bureau Chen Sheng-shan indicated that in order to promote the 2018 Taichung Floral Exposition, the Flower Carpet Festival especially create the “Leopard Cat Family and music” including the display of flowers and plants incorporated into the Leopard image, also the mascot of the Leopard Cat Family will take random time to show up in the area and have fun with the visitors. Besides, the themed area, “Colorful Ground & Painting Cloth” having a wide coverage goes with the installation shaped insects, birds and animal and symbolizes the abundant natural ecology. The onsite activity has been planned into the “Floral Era” food promotion area and the “Floral Blooming” promotion area of the local agricultural products and makes the visitor feel convenient to taste the local agricultural products.

Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival is followed by the “Taichung Arts Festival”, the “Sea of Flower in Xinshe” and the “Houli Lily Festival”. And the cherry blossom activities held in each district in Taichung City until the end of the Chinese New Year holidays including the Wuling Farm and the Taian Cherry Blossom Festival create the image of Taichung, the garden city, farm travel with fruit picking and featured bed and breakfast. Also, the bicycle greenway of Dongfeng and Houfeng, the Dongshi Hakka Culture Park, aboriginal culture and Guguan hot spring will be integrated into an all-in-one experience journey of LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability).

The Department of Transportation indicated that to reduce the traffic impact to the surroundings, during the festival, the traffic control will be implemented, and there are five free shuttle buses identified with colors and the names of the leopard family and divided into Lehu (green) line-Houli train station (Houli elementary school), mother leopard (red) line- Fengyuan train station, father leopard (yellow)- the Machang parking lot of the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau (Machang Road and Houke Road Intersection), Laihu (blue) line-Lipao Land and the Omema (purple) line- Fengzhou (available on the weekends and holidays) providing transportation service to the visitors. The interval of the bus will be 20-25 minutes. The public are encouraged to view the flowers leisurely by taking the public transportation.

The Tourism and Travel Bureau gives the reminding that It’s the final countdown to opening of the Flower Carpet Festival, the onsite constructions are under intense finalizing. The city government has progressively put efforts to the constructions. To ensure the safety and quality of the constructing works, the Houli Flower Farm Greenway will be closed from December 8th this year, and will officially open to the public on December 23rd. There’s no entry allowed during the period. No men or vehicles are permitted to enter. The public should not enter this area to prevent any security concern during the construction.

For related information about the event, please go to the official website of “2017 Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival” (http://flowercarpet.com.tw/) or go to the facebook and search for the official fan page, the “Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival”.