Taipei Travel

The spring season in Taipei is heralded by blooming flowers and warm weather. Usually taking place between Chinese New Year and the month of March, this period characterized by birth and vitality is also a great time for people to visit Yangmingshan, surrounded by Mother Nature and a comfortable and natural environment.

The Parks and Street Lights Office (PSLO) has organized a prelude to this year’s flower season, featuring an exhibition of over thousands of camellia seedlings and bonsais at the Floriculture Experiment Center between January 22 and 31. For this event, PSLO asked over 450 participants during the “Time Capsule” activity in 2015 to write down something they want to say to themselves in 2016. The agency has mailed the slips of paper to the participants on January 15. Individuals with the reply card enclosed in the mail can pick up a camellia seedling from the information desk at the Floriculture Experiment Center between January 22 and 31 (9 AM through 4 PM).

Flowers in full bloomThis year’s Yangmingshan Flower Season will last from January 30 to March 20. The 51-day-long show period will span both the Chinese New Year holiday and February 28 long weekend. It is also the longest Yangmingshan Flower Season since the event’s inception. Furthermore, the venue of Yangmingshan Flower Season comprises YangmingsPark, Chienshan Park, and other areas. The completion of phase 1 works for Yangming Park renovations also offers an additional 5,000 meter-square of green space for 160 newly planted cherry blossom trees. Combined with the refurbished space at the Flower Clock Plaza, visitors will be able to enjoy a more comfortable and safer environment.

Camellia exhibitionAccording to PSLO, the camellias in Yangmingshan are gradually blooming and up to 30-percent of Taiwan cherry blossoms (Prunus Campanulata) are blooming. Full bloom of Taiwan cherry is expected sometimes between Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. This will be followed by the blossoming of the Japanese cherry blossom in February, as well as full blossom of Yoshino cherry blossom (Prunus transarisanensis) and peonies in March. An estimated 1 million tourists from Taiwan and abroad are expected to visit Yangmingshan during the flower season. For information on flower blooms, please visit the following Chinese website: http://flowers.taipei/

In addition to continuing to arrange eco tours of Yangming Park and mountain-cleaning events, PSLO has invited Taiwanese craftsmen to showcase Ming-dynasty-style furniture at Yangming Park’s Xinhai-guangfu Building. The agency also invited Taipei Chinese Orchestra to perform on February 21 at the Floriculture Experiment Center on February 21 (event will be canceled in the situation of rainy weather) as a part of promotion efforts for the flower season. To ensure smooth traffic in the vicinity, there will be several traffic control measures in place during the flower season period (January 31 through March 20). The weekend traffic control measures for Yangde Boulevard will be extended to cover the following dates: January 31 (Sun.); February 6 (Sat.); February 8 (First day of Chinese New Year) through 14 (seventh day of Chinese New Year); February 20 (Sat.); February 21 (Sun.); February 27 (Sat.) through February 29 (Mon.); March 5 (Sat.); March 6 (Sun.); March 12 (Sat.); March 13 (Sun.); March 19 (Sat.); and March 20 (Sun.).

Taiwan Cherry on Hushan RoadThe checkpoint for uphill traffic will be established at the entrance of Fuxing Bridge, located at Lane 1 of Zhishan Road Section 2. The time for uphill traffic control will be extended from 7 AM to 4 PM. The checkpoint for downhill traffic is located at Lane 43 on Yangming Road Section 1. Traffic control measures will be implemented between 2 PM and 6 PM. The roads around the vicinity of Yangming Park will be subjected to either daily or weekend/holiday traffic control measures.

PSLO reminds visitors to take public transportation when they visit the flower season to avoid traffic congestions. Buses 260 and R5 are available for passengers arriving at MRT Jiantan Station and MRT Shilin Station. For those traveling from MRT Beitou Station, please take bus 230. A 3-hour parking fee waiver is available for park-and-ride drivers who park their vehicles at Fuling Park underground parking lot and take the bus to Yangmingshan. 

For more information, please visit the Chinese activity website: http://2016.yms.taipei 

For pictures from the flower festival, please visit the online photo storage space at: https://goo.gl/vOPNAC 

Flower season is here. 

Department of Information Technology, Taipei City Government