Written/Compiled and Reported by Li Xinyi, MOOK Travel & Lifestyle Network
Every mid-January is when canola flowers are in full bloom, creating a vast, stunning expanse of golden yellow. This year marks the return of the Canola Flower Festival after a five-year hiatus, which will take place again on the 19th (Saturday) in front of the Daguan Building in Chihshang Township, Taitung. In addition to inviting local performance groups, this year’s canola flower event will also feature green juice made from the stems and leaves of the canola plants, used to create green dumpling wrappers, while the canola flower stamens are used as filling—offering visitors a chance to try making and tasting "green ingots" on-site just before Lunar New Year. There will also be an indigo-dyeing fabric experience available.
This year’s Chihshang Canola Flower Festival will be held in the fields in front of the Daguan Building alongside Bulang Boulevard. (Photo/MOOK Travel & Lifestyle Network Li Xinyi)
In fact, canola flowers are used to replenish organic matter in rice paddies, hence they are referred to as winter green manure. After the rice harvest in November of the previous year, the government provides farmers with free canola seeds. Farmers then sow the seeds themselves, and the flowers bloom about 45 days after sowing, lasting around 10–15 days. Once the blossoms fade, the plants can be plowed back into the fields.
Xu Yue’e, General Manager of the Chihshang Township Farmers’ Association, noted that this year’s canola flower event has been set in the fields in front of the Daguan Building beside Bulang Boulevard in Chihshang Township—the very spot where pianist Gavin Tsai once performed in the fields, which was even featured on the cover of TIME magazine in the United States. Looking south across the area, there are no power poles in a 400-hectare stretch, offering expansive views and endless seas of golden canola blossoms, making it a memorable spot for travelers to relive their dreamy pastoral moments.
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