Taipei City Government

Mayor Ko Wen-je arrived at the Flower Clock Plaza in Yangmingshan National Park on February 17 to participate in the opening ceremony of the 2019 Yangmingshan Flower Festival. 

In his address, Mayor Ko argued that if Taipei wishes to become a beautiful and sophisticated city, it must maintain a schedule of staple events each year, as well as continuously reviews and improvements of the occasions over time. The night before, the mayor had presided over the opening ceremony of the Taipei Lantern Festival, which he felt had grown in quality and scale each year since it had moved to the city’s Western District.

Ko said that this is why the city government needs to build a knowledge management system, a platform where the data on respective events is stored immediately following their conclusions and reviewed before the next occurrence. This ensures a mechanism to improve the respective events each time. 

In his address, Mayor Ko also highlighted the activities taking place during the month-long Yangmingshan Flower Festival. In addition to a rich variety of flowers such as tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils, there are also art exhibitions and street dance competitions to admire. On the closing day of the festival, the city government will invite citizens for a mountain and river clean-up event to restore Yangmingshan to its natural beauty and purity.

The mayor highlighted the city’s concept of the Taipei Flower Festival Schedule, which comprises the Taipei Camellia Show and the Lohas Cherry Blossom Festival before Chinese New Year, and the Yangmingshan Flower Festival right after, followed by the CKS Shilin Residence Tulip Exhibition and the Yangmingshan Zhuzihu Calla Lily Festival. The schedule then continues with the Taipei Azalea Season taking place on and around the campus of National Taiwan University in mid-March. Over the past four years, the city has planted 300,000 azaleas and rhododendrons along nearby streets such as Wenzhou Street, Roosevelt Street, and Dingzhou Street. Blossoming from January through March, these bright-flowered bushes have given rise to the South District’s new moniker, City of Azaleas.
 
In May, the Yangmingshan Hydrangeas Flower Festival and the Taipei Rose Festival takes place in the CKS Shilin Residence and the Rose Garden of Xinsheng Park respectively. The flower festival then concludes with the Shilin Residence Chrysanthemum Show. The City hopes to reach as many residents and visitors through the busy Taipei Flower Festival schedule. The mayor expressed his confidence that as these recurring events become increasingly fine-tuned on the levels of logistics, communication, and aesthetics, Taipei will develop not only as a city of economic production and consumption, but also a capital of beauty and culture.