Holiday in Taiwan - Taipei International Flora Exhibition

The last time I had a holiday in Taiwan was in Spring 2011. It was a beautiful April with whole 3 weeks of sunshine and temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius. The weather was simply gorgeous and we took the opportunity to get around Taipei City and the various main sights.

Queue into the Flora Exhibition grounds

Our visit to Taiwan coincided with the Taipei International Flora Exhibition which opened November the year before. It was the final few days of the Expo and hundreds of thousands of people were still visiting it every day! We were lucky to get our hands on some "special" tickets which allowed express entry to the grounds and highlight pavilions. When I said special, I meant we queued for just half an hour instead of 2-3 hours. There were seas of people, and they came wave after wave throughout the day.

We were complete amazed by the exhibits, designed and exhibited by countries around the world especially for this exhibition. All were unique and the landscape architects attempted to recreate the famous and memorable landmarks of their countries. So we saw Rome of Italy, the Petronas twin towers of Malaysia, wind mills of Holland and many more.


Performances both in doors and outdoors were set up around the exhibition grounds. There were people dancing in traditional Taiwanese costumes and singing to Taiwanese folk songs. Official were posted every 100 meters to help directing visitors and answer important questions about where to find lavatories and buy food. There were also souvenir shops selling Flora Expo memorabilia, pot plants and other garden items.

We enjoyed the day tremendously and must say that it was a well organized event. Taiwan has come a long way toward democracy and its ability to host such an international event is another evidence of its growing stability in the region. For us, we were just pleased to have the opportunity to witness its growth and to visit the exhibition.