Tainan previews five-day ‘Pokemon Go’ safari event

Staff writer, with CNA





A Pokemon Go Safari Zone event, which offers players of the mobile game the chance to catch elusive cartoon characters, is to be held in Tainan, the Tainan City Government said on Thursday.

Pokemon Go is a free-to-play, location-based, augmented-reality game that was released in select countries in July 2016. Taiwan in August 2016 became the third market in Asia where people could chase virtual creatures, after Hong Kong and Japan.

The event is to start in Tainan Metropolitan Park and at the Chimei Museum on Nov. 1 and run through Nov. 5, Acting Tainan Mayor Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) said.

A promotional collage advertises the Pokemon Go “Safari Zone” event to take place in Tainan from Nov. 1 to Nov. 5. Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times

The Tainan Tourism Bureau forecast that the event would attract 200,000 Pokemon Go players during the five-day period.

Players of the game would encounter rarely seen creatures, such as Relicanth, which normally only appears in the wild in New Zealand, and a “psychic-type” Pokemon called Unown.

The park and museum are to be the main backdrop for the event, but players would also be able to catch virtual monsters in about 30 hot spots across the city, including National Cheng Kung University’s banyan garden, the grounds of Tainan Confucius Temple, Chigu Salt Mountain and Jingliao Old Street in Houbi District (後壁).

Visitors would be able to chase monsters from 10:30am to 4:30pm each day, the bureau said.

There is to be three meet-and-greets with Pokemon each day, with workers dressed up as Pokemon charecters, including Pikachu, wandering the plaza in front of the museum, it said.

Visitors who come to see the mascots could win free gifts, including Pikachu-themed hats, the bureau said.