Pingxi Lantern Festival

A dream come true! Before I came to Taiwan, I heard and read a lot about a lantern festival in a little village outside of Taipei called Pingxi. The festival occurs during the week of Chinese New Year celebrations.

My friend Lauren, another RYE  student from California, and I headed by train up to the village of Pingxi. The train ride was beautiful. The weather was kind of rainy, but it made the lush green mountain hillsides, the waterfalls, and the small villages we passed on the way up all look like a beautiful painting.

When we arrived at the village, we each bought our own lanterns and began painting our wishes on each. Lanterns are four sides, with a huge opening in the middle for the fire which fuels them into the sky. Tradition is to write or draw your wishes with black ink on each side. We spent about an hour painting and finished just at dark. The village of Pingxi is located smack dab on the train tracks!  Everyone lets their lantern go on the train tracks. With the help of a fire expert, we lit our lanterns, and released them into the sky. Many people are releasing their own at the same time, so the night sky is filled with beautiful floating lanterns. After our lanterns disappeared into the sky, we explored the village of Pingxi some more.  We then headed home to Taipei. I am so glad I was able to experience the lantern festival in person!