Of all the seasons, springtime has to be the one that brings the most smiles to the most faces. Bringing fresh weather, moods, and opportunities, spring time in Taiwan is a special occasion for many reasons, and gives the country yet another chance to show its beautiful colors.

Spring, it dredges up half-baked images from the collective imagination of baby lambs, flowers blooming, and mad hares, not that there is a large number of baby lambs in the Belfast area during May, nor Taipei in February for that matter (spring starts with Lichun in the Chinese tradition, between the 3rd and 5thFebruary, one month before the Western spring).

In late December 2010 I went to the Taipei International Flower Expo and had a good time.  There are a number of reasons as to why this was the case.  Please allow me to elucidate.

I did not pay much attention a few months ago to the controversy in the media about the price tag of this International Flower Exposition (台北國際花卉博覽會).