The rainbow flower sea and 3D lightning-colored painted rice fields at the Pingtung Tropical Agriculture Expo are absolutely spectacular

By the MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Team

The Pingtung Tropical Agriculture Expo generated significant excitement even before its opening, sparking heated discussions online. Especially this year, the artfully designed flower sea landscape combines over 20 types of vibrant flowers—including cosmos, sunflowers, salvia, crested cockscomb, and scarlet sage—to create patterns of birds, fish, and fruits that highlight Pingtung’s rich local specialties. By utilizing terrain elevation changes, it crafts the Morning Glow Hills and Rainbow Hills 3D flower seas. Many visitors were amazed upon entering the park and rushed to take photos with the flower sea, exclaiming, “It’s so beautiful!”

At the center of the flower sea is a totem of two hands holding a young plant. Designer Wu Zongxian explained that this represents the concept of “love and cultivation.” As a major agricultural county, Pingtung boasts abundant produce, serving as a key production base in Taiwan for flowers, freshwater and marine aquaculture, and livestock. This year’s Tropical Agriculture Expo is planned around Pingtung’s rich agricultural elements.12Major themed areas include the colored rice field, flower sea, fruit and vegetable corridor, agritourism experience, multicultural specialty crop zone, leisure agriculture area, youth innovation zone, premium seafood tasting, equestrian performances, food court, pet-friendly zone, and a children’s play area loved by both kids and adults—making it a perfect spot for family outings during the New Year. 

Building on the enthusiasm generated by last year’s colored rice art festival, the county government collaborated with Thunderbolt Puppet Co. to combine innovative agricultural technology with puppet character cultural creativity. With guidance from award-winning farmer Lin Ching-yuan and computer graphic technology from Chung Hsin University of Science and Technology,3Dthe patterns were created using2hectares of farmland planted with purple, white, yellow, and green colored rice to depict two iconic Thunderbolt Puppet characters—“The Chi of the Universe (Su Zhenzhen)” and “The Hero of a Thousand Pages (Ye Shicai).” These figures have now been officially unveiled.

Most remarkably, Su Zhenzhen and Ye Shicai are not designed in a cute Q-version style. The detailed and intricate lines of the patterned figures faintly convey the extraordinary presence of the Pure White Lotus Su Zhenzhen and the All-knowing Sage Ye Shicai. Su Zhenzhen is depicted sitting leisurely in the Glazed Immortal Realm, playing the guqin—true to the elegant and graceful aura of the character in the drama. Magistrate Pan and the public climbed up to the viewing platform to witness Su Zhenzhen and Ye Shicai leap from the TV screen into the rice waves, coming to life vividly. They couldn’t help but give a thumbs-up in admiration of the skill of Pingtung’s farmers.