This year's Tung Blossom Festival event series runs from now until mid-May, with the theme "Search for dashes of white in the memories", jointly organized by the Hakka Affairs Council and 14 counties (cities) in Taiwan.
The Tung Blossom Festival has been held for many years and has become a public festival. Minister Yang said that every year, the Hakka Affairs Council finds an old Earth God Shrine in a Hakka village to pay respects to the land and mountains. The format of the event is adjusted to encourage everyone to invite their friends to gather under the trees and admire the beauty of nature rather than hold large and boisterous events. It is hoped that through the experiences, the culture of admiring Tung flowers will be promoted. In the same way people go to admire the cherry trees blossoms when the tung trees blossoms, people will naturally admire the tung flowers.
Since 2022, the event title of the Tung Blossom Festival has no longer used the word "Hakka." For the first time, it combines global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the promotion of Leave No Trace, focusing on three core values: "Green Tourism," "Regional Revitalization" and "Hakka Culture" to make the events more open and long-term. It also aims to focus on the Hakka spirit of respecting heaven, loving people and cherishing things as core concepts to transform the Tung Blossom Festival. Through the ritual design, the "Way of the Tong Flower Gathering" philosophy of admiring flowers is created to elevate "Admiring Tung Blossoms"; it aims to "brings together people, people and nature, beliefs and Hakka culture via Tung Flowers," imbuing the admiration of flowers with Taiwanese humanistic characteristics. The 2023 event will continue the "Way of Tong Flower Gathering" and showcase the refined four steps of "flower blessing, finding flowers, flower gathering and fruit bearing." This will generate dialogue for tourists who visit the mountains and forests at different times and places, building new relationships between people, places and products.
In addition, in order to provide the public with a high-quality travel experience and enjoy the beauty of tung blossoms, the Hakka Affairs Council's "Hakka Tour" website has newly expanded the monitoring of 10 tung blossom scenic spots this year to a total of 20 places across Taiwan. It also provides intelligent blooming forecasts, so that the public can get tung flower information in real time. With the 35 tung flower tours in Taiwan, it provides a variety of itinerary options, from natural ecology, mountain trails to bike tours, that meet the needs of different tourists and allows the public to choose the best time to admire flowers, plan an itinerary in advance and enjoy a wonderful Tong blossom tour.
In order to enable the public to experience the dialogue between people and the environment in the four different time periods of "flower blessing, finding flowers, flower gathering and fruit bearing," the Hakka Affairs Council will hold Tung Flower experience events at Shitan in Miaoli on April 23 and at Hengshan in Hsinchu on May 7. Members of the public are encouraged to sign up for the Tung Flower experience event. At the same time, various co-branded products will be launched during this year's event, including a MOS Burger limited co-branded fruit juice gift box, the Longyuan Cake Shop Beipu tangerine gift box, Dashan Beiyue rock sugar Tung Flower nectar citrus slices and a series of other Tung Flower co-branded products. Please check the "Tung Blossom Festival" Facebook page and the "Hakka Tour" website for more information.
