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Enjoy Taipei’s Springtime Azalea Festival and Receive a Lucky Charm

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Post date:2019-03-18

Updates:2019-03-18

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To let travelers in Taipei experience Taiwan’s traditional “greeting culture” (“Have you eaten?” – “You need a hand?”), the Department of Information and Tourism (TPEDOIT) is holding a Greet and Meet a Friend event starting March 12 and lasting for one month. The event involves 26 temporary in-store Information Stations collaborating with the private sector, where tourists can go in and ask questions, have a chat, or buy something.
 
Anyone entering an information station will receive a cute lucky charm (while supplies last), while some business owners offering additional gifts, such as 50% price reductions.  For instance, the On My Way youth hostel chain offers NT$ 50 tickets for Taipei’s double-decker sightseeing busses (one ticket per hostel guest), the Evergreen Maritime Museum offers entry tickets at half price, and other stores also have special offers to make travelers in springtime Taipei feel the friendly hospitality of the Taiwanese people.

The lucky charms come in four models: Peace & Health, Joy & Wealth, Success in School, and Heavenly Blessings. Travelers can pick whichever appeals to them most. TPEDOIT City Tourism Division Chief Chu Pin-tse explains: the handmade wooden charms with colorful prints on the front and reverse have a nice touch and look, and are complemented by a traditional Chinese knot pendant. For local and foreign travelers alike, they make nice mementos and even collector’s items (tourists may collect different ones at several information stations, available while supplies last).

The information stations from the Greet and Meet a Friend event coincide with the Taipei Azalea Season, Chu said, so that travelers can get directions to the city’s azalea hotspots and tips on other fun things to do. For instance, in the shopping district around Wenzhou Street, Roosevelt Road, and Dingzhou Road, where thousands of azaleas and rhododendrons have been planted, there are also many bookstores and coffee shops to enjoy—often rolled into one, such as the Yabook or Nomading Travel Bookstore, which also happens to be a Information Station participating in the event. In the Yongkang shopping district, with its many boutiques and ethnic and organic stores, the Atealia Tea House is another thoughtful and fragrant information station.

Why not stay overnight to soak up some more of Taipei’s springtime flavors? The “City of Azaleas” around Roosevelt Road and National Taiwan University is in full bloom until at least the end of March, while the Greet and Meet a Friend event with its information stations and special gifts runs from March 12 through April 14.

For further information about the Greet and Meet a Friend event, visit the TPEDOIT’s event page at https://www.travel.taipei/zh-tw/information/askme, or call Ms. Chen from the TPEDOIT-appointed organizer Voler Marketing at (02) 2758-8218 from Monday to Friday 10:00-17:00, or contact her Line account @myvoler.

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