Greasy pole climbing contest & other northern events- where?

I was watching a show on TV about some annual festival somewhere in Taiwan where a bunch of guys compete by climbing up a long greasy pole. Apparently it took hours before someone finally made it to the top and won the whole thing.

But not understanding Chinese, I couldn’t figure out where and when this happened. Does anyone know?

I’m always looking for different festivals and events like these to bring people that visit me in Taiwan. Especially festivals in the north. The lantern festival in Pinghsi was good, and there’s of course the dragonboat festival, although that’s less special.

Any other suggestions?

That’s the 搶孤 festival (Hanyu Pinyin is Qianggu, unsure of the Taiwanese romanization of it, I think it’s Chiang Ku). It’s held at the end of the seventh lunar month every year in Toucheng, Yilan county (which is usually mid-August or so.)

I’ve been a couple of times and taken some pictures.

Any idea when it will be arranged this year? Should be pretty soon.

It’s the eight month now.

Just read it’s on the 30th August from this website but no further details

http://sinotour.com/news/412.html

Thanks. I’ll be there. Getting information on such things is really difficult! :stuck_out_tongue: