According to my city guide of Xinzhu, the 12th of February is the Lantern Festival.
I’m wondering if there’s anything special happening in either Xinzhu or Taipei for this or will it be as uneventful as Chinese New Year was?
Taipei
CKS has usual lantern diplays
PingXi is often fun but with the govt predicting 30,000+ people heading there it will be hideous.
Check out my rough video of the Lantern Festival at Pingxi last weekend:
AWOL, where did you hear that the crowd would number 30,000? Any idea how that compares to last weekend? It wasn’t crowded at all but I’m sure there were 10,000 people around.
Shuttle buses leave from the Muzha Zoo MRT station every 5 minutes.
is this happening all week? I saw a sign in the MRT indicating it is going on for some time.
Whassup? :help:
I believe the main attraction of Lantern festival is the terrible traffic jams caused by outdoor presentations in large urban areas.
It does last for at least a week or so. I don’t know the start and stop dates but in the past if one missed it one weekend one could go the next. In fact, my wife said we’re not going tonight because we’ll go with a friend who arrives next weekend.
We went to Shifen for tonight’s lantern release. The crowds were insane! We were esimating that 100,000 people showed up. The shuttle buses arrived there fast thanks to traffic restrictions, but waiting in line to take the bus back took almost 2 hours.
The number of people there made for some spectacular sights, what with hundreds of lanterns in the sky at any given moment.
I tried going up to Shifen, but I got stuck in Ruifang. There were about 17 gazillion people (give or take a gazillion) trying to get on the train so I gave up. Not to sound like a snob (actually, I’m trying to sound like a complete snob) but I was all indignant that I brought all my fancy camera shit up with me and couldn’t make it, while I’m sure that at least half the people that made it there came back with nothing but blurry pictures on their digital point and shoots.
Spent the afternoon in Jilong, though, which was nice. There was a whole bunch of temple festivities, sorta like a mini Dajia Mazu festival.
I went to Ping Xi. It was just a sea of people. Really crowded, but worth it. The buses were stuffed. Getting down took longer than getting up there and the bus ride itself was already 50 min.
And the lanterns got more expensive the closer you got the the open area that is designated for lantern releases.
Right when you get off the bus, it sold for 100 NT. Then, 120, 150 and at the end, it sold for 200.
They were making a killing towards the end of the night.
I bought it for 120, wasn’t about to walk all the way back for 20 NT.
I think, I may go again next year. It was really pretty.
Agree totally. GF’s uncle invited us to Taizhong to attend the festivities there. Attractions included sitting in traffic, being jostled around in crowds so dense you could hardly move, some snoopy-shaped lantern displays and a ho-hum laser light show using the park water fountain you couldn’t see because of the crowds. Definitely locals only, renao entertainment.