People participate in the first day of this year’s Taiwan International Balloon Festival in Taitung County yesterday. About 40 hot air balloons from Taiwan and abroad are to hover over the Luye Highland for 45 days, including balloons in the shape of Japanese cartoon character Hello Kitty and the Tourism Bureau’s mascot OhBear, event organizers said, adding that the festival also features light sculpture music shows.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday ascended on a 19.2m-tall hot air balloon themed on Taipei’s mascot, Bravo a Formosan black bear with a blue nose on the first day of the Taiwan International Balloon Festival in Taitung County.
The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said that Taipei and Taitung County on Tuesday last week signed an agreement to promote and increase tourism between the two jurisdictions.
Ko, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) and department Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) were part of a delegation who early yesterday morning visited the festival venue in Taitung’s Luye Highland (鹿野高台).
Yesterday was
2021/07/29 12:03 A hot air balloon at a Taiwan International Balloon Festival (Taitung County photo) A hot air balloon at a Taiwan International Balloon Festival (Taitung County photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) A warm-up event on Thursday (July 29) for the popular annual balloon festival in eastern Taiwan was met with a local protest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled to take place between July 3 and Aug. 16, the 2021 Taiwan International Balloon Festival in Taitung has been postponed due to the coronavirus. When the event will kick off remains unclear, but the proposal to move it from the traditional site of Luye Highland to Chishang Township has enraged many locals.