On Sunday, I traveled along with my fellow international classmates to the National Lantern Festival held in Chiayi City. WOW WOW WOW WOW...and WOW! It was the last day of the Chinese New Year Festival. We saw numerous different lanterns, including many of the traditional red spherically shaped ones with "zi" (Chinese characters) on them. There were thousands upon thousands of people there, and our trip included a very scary taxi ride through a sea of people walking and riding around on scooters. Every side of the taxi was surrounded by locals and visitors.
Shortly after 7 p.m. that evening, all the electricity to the festival site went out. The organizers lit the most artistic lantern. This ceremony was quickly followed by an enormous fireworks display. Even though it was short (by American standards), the sky was as bright as the day filled with beautiful colored light that was generated by the combustion of many different chemicals.
That night also brought some wonderful food. We ate at a local restaurant and had minced turkey (a meat that is very unusual in Taiwan) in sauce with rice, soft tofu (also in a sauce), pidan (which I didn't like), some soup, and some vegetables. We capped off the night with some mango-flavored milk (absolutely awesome) and a pineapple cake.
I loved the Chinese New Year and wish I could have seen more. The picture posted with this blog entry was taken by Linda Yao.
To check out some videos, click on the following links:
Lanterns
Fireworks
you went to chiayi !!!? thats so cool and i saw the video of firework you took,thats amazing :)
ReplyDeletei just went to the 文心 park to see the lanterns,it wasn't really good . so im kinda disappointed at it :s