The “2019 Taichung Hot Spring Season – Pleasure of Surfing at Guguan” series is unveiled and kicked off with the “Taichung Hot Spring COSPLAY Photography Competition.” The open call has started to accept entries on July 10. Through the animation of COSER to show the sentiment of the characters, reveal the situations and creative style, this event aims at promoting the hot springs, natural beauty and local custom and culture of Guguan, Dakeng, Dongshi, and Wuri so that more people could be attracted to Taichung for pleasure, according to the Tourism and Travel Bureau of the Taichung City Government.

This series is inspired by the long time sister-city relation and hot spring companionship between Taichung and Tottori Ken of Japan. Tottori Ken of Japan is known as the “Kingdom of Comics.” The idea originated from the joint venture with Tottori Ken of Japan for presenting “hot spring” and “comics” to the public. The series is unveiled with the presentation of the hot spring area at Guguan, followed by the introduction of the series of events. The open call of the “2019 Taichung Hot Spring COSPLAY Photography Competition” is the starter of the series, according to Director Lin Hsiao-Chi of the Tourism and Travel Bureau.

Those who are interested in COSPLAY photography and role playing could just visit the hot spring areas in Taichung, including Guguan, Wuri, Dakeng and Dongshi Forestry Reserve to capture anything showing the feature of COSPLAY in their photograph works and send the works to the organizer by the deadline of July 10 (based on the postal stamp), said Director Lin. The photographic works could be stored in the memory card or disk, and should be delivered to NO. 28, Lane 100, Sancun Road, Fengyuan District, Taichung City, together with the application form, and mark down “Participation in Taichung Hot Spring COSPLAY Photograph Competition.” The works will be referred for review and evaluation for the competition.

People at the age of 18 or above (minors under the age of 18 may also participate at the consent of the guardians) are welcome to participate in the competition. The works should be in conformity to the designated theme of photograph and specification for acceptance. There should be no violation of good custom and the works shall not present anything that are associated with guns, weapons, knife, arms, violence, drugs, obscenity and other anti-social sentiment. The photographs must be taken in the duration of the event without prior presentation to the public or in any other competitions with awards, according to the Tourism and Travel Bureau.

The photographs could be refined by adjustment of brightness, color contrast, saturation and trimming to the desired size. No composite photograph through pasting, overlapping and relocation of visual elements or copying the work of a third person will be accepted. The specifications of the work should be larger or equal to 1024*768 (at least 1M and no more than 3M). Each participant may submit two pieces of work but each may receive only 1 award up to the top price.

The Tourism and Travel Bureau friendly reminds the participants to be aware of inadvertent trespassing into private property in taking photographs in which case the prior consent of the proprietor will be necessary to avoid unnecessary dispute. Professional photographers and experts in the field will be invited to review the work in the preliminary round of competition. Outstanding works will be sorted out in the preliminary round and upload to the official website for voting. Netizens are invited to vote for their favorite works. To be qualified as a web voter, netizens should register with the personal information (name in Chinese, telephone, and FB ID). Each netizen is entitled to cast one vote once daily.

Through the preliminary screen of the professionals and the online balloting by netizens, the final scoring will come up for sorting out the 13 winners of the Gold Award, Silver Award, Bronze Award, Outstanding Awards and the Popularity Awards. The winners will also receive a price for their works ranging from NT$20,000 to NT$5,000. The awarded works will also be produced into souvenirs for releasing to the netizens participating in the balloting through random drawing.

The City Government spares no effort in promoting the hot spring and tourism industry of Taichung, and has successfully secured a budget from the Bureau of Tourism at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for subsidizing the Spring Traveling Project aiming at encouraging tourism travels of the people. This will be echoed with the 1st Taichung Shopping Festival of Taichung City Government, and the extended event of “2019 Taichung Hot Spring Season,” according to the Bureau of Tourism. Further to the pioneer event of “Taichung Hot Spring COSPLAY Photograph Competition,” other events like the “Taichung Hot Spring Gourmet Show,”, the lucky draw “Playing and Shopping at Greater Taichung at Hot Spring” and “Guguan Hot Spring Comics Carnival,” People are welcome to Taichung to soothe your body and soul at the hot springs and have the chance of winning a big price.

For the download of application form for the events, visit the official website of the Tourism and Travel Bureau, Taichung City Government at https://www.tourism.taichung.gov.tw/.