【Weekend Fun in Taiwan】Golden Needle Flower Season Begins – Don’t Miss the Eastern Golden Week!

Text / Compiled and Reported by the Editorial Team of MOOK Travel Life Network

 

With the end of Qixi Festival and the approaching Father’s Day, there are plenty of great family-friendly outings this weekend. In addition to enjoying coffee and exhibitions with Dad, you can also take the whole family to admire the beautiful scenery of blooming golden needle flowers, and catch the last weekend of the Hot Air Balloon Carnival!

 

Hualien Golden Needle Flower Season

With the change of seasons and the arrival of Liqiu (Start of Autumn), a feast of orange-yellow golden needle flower seas is about to unfold. The Hualien County Government invites everyone to visit Hualien and embark on a “Love You Forever • Golden Happiness” journey. In recent years, the Hualien County Government has allocated funds to actively promote the golden needle flower retention policy. Aside from offering the public a visual feast of the magnificent high-mountain golden needle flower seas, it also aims to boost the local tourism industry and increase the agricultural economic output of the region. The year 2014 symbolizes “love,” and the timing of this year’s Golden Needle Flower Season, starting on August 8th, holds special significance — it is a tribute to all fathers through the “Mother Herb – Daylily (Golden Needle Flower)”: “Love You Forever, Dad.”

From August 8 to September 22, 2014, two major high-mountain golden needle flower production areas in Hualien — Chike Mountain in Yuli Township and Liushitou Mountain in Fuli Township — will host a 46-day Golden Needle Flower Sea Season covering approximately 70 hectares. Based on past experience, the peak blooming period is expected to occur in mid-to-late August, though this still depends on rainfall conditions for the year.

 

【Info】

Transportation

1. Liushitou Mountain access hours: From August 8 to September 22, 2014, daily from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

2. To maintain smooth traffic, only passenger vehicles with 9 seats or fewer (including 9) are allowed uphill. However, Class A and B passenger vehicles are completely prohibited on mountain roads, and one-way traffic control is enforced. Vehicles may ascend via Provincial Highway 9, Kilometer 308.5 (Zhutian Village), and descend from the “Wanning to Fuxing Tribe Connection Road Starting Point (0 Km)” on Liushitou Mountain toward Amei Creek (Dongli Village).

 

 

Cats from Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong take the stage together! The second “Cat Cat Cat Art Exhibition” by catophilia is about to open. Featuring dreamy cats and peaceful small animals illustrated in ballpoint pen by Ms. Minami Ayako, cover illustrator for the Japanese children’s magazine “Kodomo no Bunka.” Ms. Murakami Moe, who is active in Tokyo Designer’s Week and TAGBOAT, presents a series of humorous pencil drawings of black and white cats in tiny underwear. Other highlights include the super-cute character “Box Cat” by New Sprout Workshop, MISA’s bold oil-painted cat series, Japanese-style cat illustrations by THE9LIFE, and oversized cat artworks by Hong Kong animal drawing expert Bōzi.

The illustration group catophilia’s series — “Night Cat Café,” “Silhouette Life,” and “My Cat” — will also showcase new works. The “Cat Cat Cat Art Exhibition Vol. 2” event debuts first at Kaohsiung’s Buff Café, running from June 14 to July 20, and then moves to Taipei’s Tree Grove Collection Treellage from August 2 to September 14. All artworks are available for collection. Come and experience the charm of cat-themed art.

 

【Info】

“Cat Cat Cat Art Exhibition Vol. 2”

Venue: Treellage (No. 33, Minzu West Road, Datong District, Taipei City)

Dates: August 2 – September 14

Where to go in the scorching summer? Aside from eating ice cream, shopping, or staying in an air-conditioned room, you can head to an art museum to watch films. Young directors from around the world have handpicked their most representative and promising short films to present to you. The 【2014 Youth Future Film Festival】 is an international short film festival organized, curated, and planned by youth groups. The 【2014 Youth %? Future Film Festival】 conveys an aesthetic spirit of diversity, vitality, locality, self-discovery, and social care. “These are the issues we truly care about — a film festival that truly belongs to the new generation,” said curator Lin Wei-Lun confidently.

This year marks the fifth edition of the contemporary youth film festival, which collaborates with the “Future Film Day” team to organize the “2014 Youth Future Film Festival.” Time is the fairest resource bestowed upon us. From the perspective of the absolute self, it discusses the linear continuation of the past, present, and future. Some describe time as a long river, flowing continuously from ancient times to the present. From the relative perspective of the other self — juniors, peers, elders; children, fathers, grandfathers — through understanding, communication, and imagination, time might be more like a cycle. As the Mayday song “Dry” goes: “Now is that future, that world.” Imagine when the imagined future finally arrives, will we be ready to embrace it? Envisioning the future is actually an exercise in facing oneself, strengthening the exploration and reflection of the meaning of “now/NOW” in our existence. The “past” shapes the “present,” and the “present” creates the “future.” That glimmer in the eyes of those who talk about the future is “youth.”

 

【Info】

2014 Youth %? Future Film Festival

Screening Locations:

Taipei │ MOCA Video Contemporary Image Gathering Space　

Time: Daily screenings on loop from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM / 4:00 PM – 10:00 PM; Activity Hall open Tuesday – Sunday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM (closed Mondays or during event hours)

Address: Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art (No. 39, Chang’an West Road, Taipei City)

 

Taichung │ Qixiang Space at 4F of Golden Park Mall

Time: Every Monday to Friday, 13:00–18:00

Address: 4F, No. 1049, Jianxing Rd., West District, Taichung City

 

Exhibition Period: July 19, 2014 – September 14, 2014

 

 

Masagou Music Festival

The originally scheduled “2014 Tainan Masagou Music Festival” for this Saturday (the 9th) has been postponed as a mark of mourning following the deadly gas explosion in Kaohsiung. The new date will be announced later.