The Taiwan Lantern Festival in Lugang Township, Changhua County, received 11 million visitors this year, the highest number to attend the annual event in its history, according to the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communication.
“With over 200 hectares of the small town covered with lights and lanterns, Lugang has proven itself more than capable of hosting such a large-scale event,” said Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice She-jen Lai during the festival’s closing ceremony Feb. 19.
Among those in attendance were over 29,000 foreign visitors, as well as journalists from Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, South Korea and the U.S, according to the bureau.
The seaside town of Lugang is known for its temple culture as well as its traditional desserts, wood carving, ceramic arts and handcrafted paper lanterns. Though its current population numbers only 80,000, it was a trading port of major importance during the 18th and 19th centuries.
First introduced in 1990 in Taipei City, the Taiwan Lantern Festival has been held in different cities and counties around the nation since 2001.
Next year’s festival will be held in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County, according to the Tourism Bureau.
Taiwan’s Lantern Festival spectacles, including the Pingxi sky lanterns of Taipei and the Yanshui beehive rockets of Tainan, have previously been featured in the Discovery Channel’s “Fantastic Festivals of the World” series. (HZW)
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw