Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival: How to Do It and Why You Should

00-20170125 Taiwan Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is an experience that you will never forget.

Beginning 15 days after the Chinese New Year, Taiwan’s Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is considered one of the most enchanting, symbolic, and bright celebrations among New Year festivities around the world. Held in Taiwan’s Pingxi District (one hour by train from Taipei) each February, festival attendees release as many as 200,000 lanterns into the night sky, each emblazoned with hopes, well wishes, names of loved ones, and, sometimes even fingerprints of those in attendance. In old lantern tradition, some lanterns are even adorned in riddles, waiting to be captured by a curious mind eager to solve the puzzle.

The Tradition

You can buy a pre-made lantern, or get a kit and make your own.
You can buy a pre-made lantern, or get a kit and make your own.

Jirka Matousek

Every year, more than 100,000 people gather to celebrate the event, a tradition marking the Lunar New Year and first full moon of the year. Many outlets like Fodor’s, CNN, and Discovery Channel have listed the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival as one of the events that any world traveler should add to their bucket list. Discovery Channel even calls the festival one of the best New Year’s celebrations in the world.

Not just for the beautiful light show, the lanterns have a purposeful history, too. It is believed that the lanterns originated during the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-265) and were used as beacons of both light and communication, carrying messages during wartime and letting villagers know when they should flee into the surrounding mountains.

The Event

Set up early and get some unique shots, like this one, when a few lanterns were sent off before the official event started.
Set up early and get some unique shots, like this one, when a few lanterns were sent off before the official event started.

Jirka Matousek

Over the course of three hours in the nighttime, usually beginning at 6:30 p.m., the lanterns are released three times each hour. As they rise, they illuminate the Pingxi landscape—a beautiful mountain town bisected by train tracks in northwestern Taiwan—symbolizing good fortune, promise, and prosperity to participants and observers the world over. In 2017, the event will be held on February 11.

"No image or video prepared me for the raw beauty as people’s hopes and prayers swept into the sky, glowing bright. All the hassle melted away: the crowds, the sunburn, the public-transit palaver… My heart lifted with the lanterns and tears spangled my vision. I’d never been that moved by a ritual before," reminisces travel writer and photographer, Amanda Castleman.

How to Get There

From Taipei’s Main Station, take a northbound train to Ruifang Station. You’ll buy a single-day ticket for the Pingxi Line. You’ll take the train to Pingxi, where shuttle service is available to the Lantern Festival.

When to Get There

Make sure you arrive early, especially if you want to get a prime spot for taking photos.
Make sure you arrive early, especially if you want to get a prime spot for taking photos.

Jirka Matousek

Because of the number of attendees, plan to arrive in Pingxi early. Many who’ve attended the festival recommend getting there hours ahead of time to avoid wild lines. Otherwise, you very well may miss the lanterns taking flight altogether. Once you’re in the festival, return to the festival grounds to prepare for the sky lantern flight. Ready-to-go lanterns can be purchased for around $3, whereas a do-it-yourself lantern kit will cost less than $1.

Watching and Photographing the Festivities

A sky filled with glowing lanterns can make for a really cool shot.
A sky filled with glowing lanterns can make for a really cool shot.

Jirka Matousek

Photographers should plan to arrive even earlier. "Professional photographers and hardcore hobbyists should colonize a hillside right beside the main release area—pretty much the only vantage where you can shoot the crowd and great upwelling of lanterns. Folks need to go early—like hours and hours early—to stake out a spot there. A tripod or high-ISO camera remains essential," Castleman says.

If you’re a wandering soul, festival-goers can be found setting their lanterns (and hopes) free into the night throughout the grounds, beyond the main launch point. Castleman suggests "lying down and shooting upwards as a few distinct balloons take flight."

Festival Highlights and Things to Do in the Area

Make sure you leave some time to visit the street markets in town.
Make sure you leave some time to visit the street markets in town.

Jirka Matousek

Throughout the festival, you’ll also find traditional Taiwanese music, films on display, and local cuisine. The most popular dish is a rice dumpling called tang yuan, that can be either sweet or savory. There are also an abundance of noodle dishes, Taiwanese sausage, and corn on the cob.

Also give yourself time to visit nearby Shifen, a small town with historic architecture famous for what some call Taiwan’s most beautiful waterfall. The falls are 65 feet high and 131 feet wide, forming a horseshoe on the Keelung River.

While there, Castleman suggests taking the time for a ride on the Pingxi Branch Line: "a narrow-gauge railway that squeezes between buildings, as vendors scramble off the track.” The line is just eight miles long, meandering through old Taiwanese villages, with market-lined streets and all the colors and smells one expects to find in the Far East.

Travelers who appreciate quaintness and charm should also check out Pingxi Old Street. It’s right next to the train station and lined with mid-century buildings and traditional street markets. The bus going back to Taipei gets pretty crowded from about 8 p.m. on, so it might be a good idea to relax and grab a bite to eat before heading back (just make sure you get on that last train).

Things to Keep in Mind

Taipei has far more accommodation options than Pingxi, so you’ll have a much easier time finding a place to call it a night, whether you prefer a hostel, local inn, or luxury hotel.

It rains in the Pingxi District 200 days per year, so bringing a poncho is vital, and wear comfortable walking shoes.

Other than that, you’re all set to have the time of your life and send your wishes and dreams up to the heavens at the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival.

Originally written by RootsRated for Craghoppers.

Featured image provided by Jirka Matousek