Location : Shifen, Pingxi District,Taiwan

Destination Type: Cultural

Taiwan holds an annual Lantern Festival in which sky lanterns are released into the night sky with people’s wishes written, to send the wishes and messages to God. The Sky lantern festival in Taiwan was termed as world’s one of the best festival by Discovery channel’s program, ” Fantastic festivals of the world”.It is is an annual event hosted by the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taiwan to celebrate the Lantern Festival. The festival is celebrated in Shifen in Pingxi district

History of  Sky lantern festival

1. The firecrackers ceremony of the Wumiao temple in Yanshuei District was held by ancient people, in order to show respect for the exploits of Guan Yu
2. The practice of lighting sky lanterns grew more widespread in the mid-19th century
3. The first festival was organized by authorities in 1990
4. In 1990 the sky lantern festival was celebrated at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei City.
5.  Since 2001, the event has toured Taiwan.

Activities for visitors at Sky lantern festival

1. Take photos of this magnificent festival
2. Buy a lantern and move to Shifen square for ascension
3. Enjoy Shifen night market
4. Indulge in Taiwanees delicacies
5. Visit Shifen water falls

How to reach there

Air

Taoyuan airport at Taipei is the nearest airport.It has flights to Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Busan, Beijing Paris, Tokyo,Hongkong, Dubai, Bangkok etc

Rail

To get to Shifen, train from Taipei to Ruifang

Nearby destinations for tour operators / travel agents

1. Taipei ( 37 kms away)
2. Jiufen (24 kms away)
3. Taroko National Park ( 155 kms away)
4. Rainbow village( 194 kms away)
5. Longshan Temple( 40 kms away)

Some hotels in Shifen with room tariff less than Rs.5000/- per night

Lin Yuan Village https://linyuanvillage.okgo.tw/

Delicateperfume Hotel https://www.facebook.com/JiufenAndRuifang

Twilighthousehttps://www.facebook.com/Twilighthouse1212/

Pingxi Red Old House https://dearbnb.com/en/bnb/red-old-house/

Jiufen Mountains Echoed B&B https://hotels.cloudbeds.com/reservation/xwWbCO#checkin=2020-02-05&checkout=2020-02-06

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 Photo courtesy:By Takeaway – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5165760

Content courtesy : https://theculturetrip.com/asia/taiwan/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-taiwan-lantern-festival/

Content courtesy :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Lantern_Festival