“Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival” is fascinatingly held from the 23rd this month until January 7th next year at the Houli Flower Farm (Huatien) Greenway. This year, it themed “sound of blooming” is incorporated with the Floral Exposition, and the venue covering the area of 22 hectares is divided into the signature area, the area of interactive installations and the creativity area with the nation’s first giant floral interactive merry-go-round named “Blooming Hill Cherry” presenting the colorful brightness and the interesting kid’s floral dreamland. In addition, according to the survey report by Tourism of Travel Bureau, the visitor count on the first day reaches a record-breaking number of 106 thousand people, which is compared to the number of 88 thousand people last year. Mayor Lin Jia-long indicated that the flowers displayed in the Floral Carpet Festival are the local flowers growing in Taichung. It hopes to increase farmer’s income and also welcome people nationwide to admire the beautiful sea of flowers in the Flower Carpet Festival and listen to the sound of blooming. It also expects to gradually create Taichung a garden city.

The opening ceremony of the Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival was held by Tourism and Travel Bureau of Taichung City on the 23rd. The Mayor Lin, the Legislator Hong Ci-yong, the City Councilor Xie Zhi-zhong, Chen Ben-tian, the Director General of the Tourism of Travel Bureau Chen Sheng-shan and the Head of the Department of Transportation Wang Yi-chuan jointly proceeded with the activation ceremony, and announced the Flower Carpet Festival this year has officially taken place. The mascot of the Floral Exposition, the Father Leopard and the Omi Hose were also on the site and joined the fun with the classic saxophone music played by 8 saxophone teachers. And the famous dancers of the “Sun Son Theatre” wearing the floral butterfly dress brought the innovative performance added the delighted carnival atmosphere to the opening ceremony.

Mayor Lin indicated that Taichung City has grandly held the International Flower Carpet Festival in Houli for welcoming the Floral Exposition next year. Also, the Houli Flower Farm (Huatien) Greenway turning from a landfill into a highlighted ecological park has been changed to a beautiful flower farm. A giant interactive floral merry-go-round named “Blooming Hill Cherry” is arranged on site. There is also a lollipop maze winning adults’ and kids’ appreciation. Welcome people of all ages to admire those beautiful flowers.

Mayor Lin said that, when flowers bloom, they actually make sounds; however, people in the modern world are too busy to pay attention to something wonderful in the surroundings. It hopes that through the Flower Carpet Festival, people can have good relax by listening carefully to the sound of nature. It also hopes to awake people’s awareness to esthetic values and make people admire the beauty of the flower sea to their hearts’ content.

The Legislator Hong Ci-yong indicated that Houli will hold the Floral Exposition next year, so the International Flower Carpet Festival is a warmup. The high flower production volume in Houli can exceed 3 billion dollars every year, so it hopes that the Flower Carpet Festival can promote the local floral industry in Taichung; in addition, for making the smooth traffic flow, there are 4.6 million dollars sponsored by the central government on the shuttle bus service and another 50 million or more dollars on the electric bus in the Floral Exposition next year. Welcome people to join enthusiastically the green powered transportation.The Tourism and Travel Bureau 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 and 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.

Besides the major attraction of a three-dimensional (3D) Interactive floral display, there are other floral and interactive installations shaped as the mascots of the Flora Exposition, the Leopard family, and the Omi horse. For example, with the length of 35 meters and the height of 12 meters, the creation of the “Happy Leopard Laihu” taking the lovely and lively Laihu as the major character is built on the slope in the Flower Farm (Huatien) Greenway; the “Carousel Rhapsody” is an installation on the flower carpet with the shape of Omi horse wearing smile and making melody.

The Tourism and Travel Bureau indicated that in order to promote the 2018 Taichung Floral Exposition, the Flower Carpet Festival has especially created the “Leopard Cat Family and music” embellished by the display of flowers and plants incorporated into the Leopard image. Also, the mascots of the Leopard Cat Family will take random time to show up in the exhibition 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.

Moreover, in order to reduce the traffic impact on the roads in the surrounding area, a traffic control plan will be implemented during the period of the event. No private vehicles are permitted to enter Fangliao Road from the Sanfeng Road and Fangliao Road Intersection during the event. Also, the roads around the venue will be routed as one-way and no parking will be permitted.

The city government has also planned four routes for the free shuttle buses identified with colors and the names of the Floral Exposition 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-Lihpao Land and the Omi horse (purple) line- Fengzhou (available on the weekends and holidays) providing visitors with the transportation service reaching the venue. The interval of the bus will be 20-25 minutes. The public are encouraged to admire the flowers with ease by taking the public transportation.

Also, the city government has provided visitors with three free parking lots to take the free shuttle buses routed for the venue. The routes are Central Taiwan Science Park-Machang Parking Space, the 3rd parking lot of the Lihpao Land and the Fengzhou Science Park (available on the holidays).

Besides, in order to care for the disabled people, the Social Affair Bureau provides rehabilitation bus for the shuttle service at the fixed time and location in the Central Taiwan Science Park. The shuttle bus at the Central Taiwan Science Park departs every hour. The public may make the reservation of the rehabilitation bus by calling the local service center.

For more 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”.