Pingxi Lantern Festival

The trip to Taiwan ended on a high-note at the Pingxi lantern festival. After a bit of struggle getting from Hualien to Pingxi (via a train to Ruifang, train to Shifen, and walk to Pingxi) we finally made it to the festival we have all been waiting months to see!

The train ride to Shifen was extremely crowded. This is not surprising when we learned that 20-30 thousand people head to the mountain town of Pingxi for perhaps the most famous lantern festival in the world that signifies the end to the lunar new year celebrations.

Burning Lantern

The streets were filled with people, food stalls, and most importantly lantern shops! We walked along the railway tracks taking everything in. Special messages were being painted onto huge paper lanterns, trains full of people passed, people danced, and lanterns were lit and released into the sky.

Lantern Stall

After a major struggle up a slippery hill, we got to the main festival area where over 2,000 lanterns were going to be released.

We waited in a huge crowd of people (all with cameras and phones- the crowd was illuminated with phone screens alone) for the release of the lanterns. The massive crowds and lack of personal space was worth it. The lantern release was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!

We pushed our way back through the crowds of people to find a spot to write on our own lanterns and release them. 

The night ended with an hour long taxi ride back to an MRT station (we decided to suck up the cost and not wait in a line of over 10,000 for a shuttle bus) and then another adventure finding the bus that would take us to the airport for our 7am flight. We had survived a gigantic crowd, avoided setting our lantern into flames, eaten more street food, and made our own New Year wishes on paper lanterns! We arrived at the airport around midnight and hung out until morning. All nighters at the airport are actually tolerable when there are 13 people to entertain each other (beer and security were all involved).