Chiayi City’s Chenghuang Night Patrol to Offer Reusable Cups for Tea

Chiayi’s annual Chenghuang Night Patrol will pair a traditional religious event with a reusable-cup campaign. On Sept. 11, tea stations will offer visitors reusable “blessing cups” instead of paper cups and bottled water.

The Chenghuang Temple holds the patrol after the Ghost Festival period. According to local tradition, Chenghuang, the city god, patrols Zhuluo City on the first day of the eighth lunar month and calls wandering spirits back to the underworld.

Chiayi Deputy Mayor Chen Yung-feng and Environmental Protection Bureau Director Sun Yi-tun presented the stainless-steel cups to the temple on Thursday morning. Temple chairman Yang Chia-nan accepted them on behalf of the temple.

The Environmental Protection Bureau said the event will serve as a demonstration area for its campaign encouraging people to bring and reuse their own tableware. The tea stations will use the blessing cups, reflecting the slogan, “Borrow a cup to form a good connection, return the cup to leave a blessing.”

Two stations, outside Chenghuang Temple and in front of Chiayi City Hall, will provide 800 cups during the patrol. Visitors can drink the tea and return the cups directly at the site.