Enjoy a wedding, listen to music, and capture photos at the Miaoli Tung Blossom Festival for a chance to win cash prizes

Written/Compiled and Reported by MOOK Travel Life Net’s Chen Guanxin

Taiwan’s well-known tung blossom viewing spot—Miaoli—will host the “2012 Miaoli Hakka Tung Blossom Festival” from April 29 to May 20. Throughout the event period, various themed activities such as music, photography, dance, nature and ecology, hands-on experiences, and sports will be launched in towns across Miaoli including Tongluo, Sanyi, Toufen, Zaociao, Gongguan, Tongxiao, Zhuolan, and Nanzhuang. The opening concert on April 29 combines with a “Hundred-Person Tea Banquet,” featuring tea tables set up under the tung blossom trees. Visitors can closely observe tea masters demonstrating the tea ceremony, enjoy the blossoms and tea, and listen to beautiful performances by singers Peng Jia-hui, Guan Lingzhi, and Dai Shiyao.

Visitors to Miaoli’s Hakka villages can not only admire tung blossoms but also participate in a rare Hakka wedding, experiencing the bridal procession amid falling blossoms. On May 5–6, Tongluo Township and Nanzhuang Township will respectively host a Hakka tung blossom wedding for 101 couples and a traditional street procession to welcome the bride. Among them, Nanzhuang Township’s “Tung Blossoms in Bloom – A Wonderful Season – Nanzhuang Street Parade to Welcome the Bride” includes two free guided tung blossom trail tours per day, DIY experience activities with receipts, bamboo toy-making, and on the morning of the 6th, a bride and groom dressed in blue and red Hakka floral attire will follow traditional Hakka marriage customs in a street procession. There will also be an Electric Three Princes performance.

For those who can’t get enough of the tung blossoms and are eager to share their photos, the “Shining Miaoli Tung Blossom Photography Marathon” will take place on May 5, with registration open until April 30. This competition features three themes: tung blossom fairy models dressed in tung blossom-themed attire, cultural artifacts from Hakka mansions, and tung blossom landscapes. Participants need to shoot one of these themes and upload their work to the Miaoli County Tourism Association’s Facebook fan page by May 8 to complete submission.

2012 Hakka Tung Blossom Festival Official Website: tung.hakka.gov.tw

●  Extended Reading: Ride a bike, admire tung blossoms, head to New Taipei’s Hakka homeland on May 12

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