Lotus flower festival to begin next week

The Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) held a conference on Friday to announce the latest information on the bureau’s recent works and upcoming events.

During the conference, the bureau said the 17th Macao Lotus Flower Festival will be held from June 10 to June 18.

The opening ceremony will take place on the afternoon of June 10 at the Taipa Houses-Museum.

Since last March, the IACM has been planting lotus flowers in various places across Macau, including gardens, major streets and popular sightseeing spots.

In total, over 5,000 pots of lotus flowers will be displayed at 30 places around the entire Macau city.

The flower exhibition garden at the Taipa Houses-Museum will be decorated in a Southeast Asian construction style, adorned with Hao Jiang Bi bo flowers.

Hao Jiang Bi bo is a new type of lotus flower that mainland China’s lotus flower study center cultivated specifically to commemorate the Macau SAR’s 10th anniversary.

Apart from the above exhibitions, the festival will also offer activities, shows and workshops featuring lotus flowers.

Addressing a separate issue, the IACM also announced that it is currently advancing renovation works on the children’s playground at the Hac Sa beach’s recreational area.

The playground had previously lost sand during the typhoons, which left the land at the playground rugged and further damaged the old playground facilities.

The playground occupies an area of 925 square meters. IACM will add more facilities for children aged between two and 17 years old to play.

Fences will be set up around the area to increase safety.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of June.

The IACM also discussed the food hygiene tests targeting the city’s rice dumplings ahead of the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival.

Together with the Health Bureau and the Macao Consumer Council, the IACM took 30 rice dumpling samples from restaurants, supermarkets and other establishments.

The samples included three kinds of rice dumplings and were subjected to microbiological and chemical tests, which did not appear to produce any adverse results.

Detailed results of the tests are publicly available on the government’s food safety website.

The IACM has also reminded the food industry to ensure that food comes from the appropriate sources and is preserved carefully.

It further recommends the public not to consume an excessive number of rice dumplings in order to maintain balanced diets.

Categories Macau