Taipei: A traditional high swing festival with a history dating back more than 200 years was held in front of a Taoist temple in southern Taiwan's Chiayi City on Sunday. The festival invites participants to take a ride one or two at a time on a 12-meter bamboo-frame swing, a practice believed to have originated in China's Fujian Province during the Jiaqing Period (1796-1820) of the Qing Dynasty. The ritual was later brought to Taiwan by settlers in the Chiayi area.

According to Focus Taiwan, the swing was constructed by locals in Chiayi as part of a ceremony to seek blessings and an end to outbreaks of the plague from Xuanwu, one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism. The festival, held at Wudang Xuantiang Temple in Chiayi's Guanglu Village, was initially conducted every leap year until 2008, when it became an annual event. That same year, it was registered as a form of intangible cultural heritage by the Chiayi City government.

Chiayi City Mayor Huang Min-hui noted that women participated in the swing competition this year for only the second time since the event opened to women in 2024. According to the Chiayi City government, the 12-meter bamboo-frame swing is constructed using a traditional method of bundling vines, without the use of nails or screws. The swing's seat, where participants stand, is set 2 meters above the ground and can reach heights of up to 10 meters as it swings, the city government said in a statement.