The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, celebrating Chinese New Year in the valley of the BURNING SKYYYY
Note: I currently live in Norway, but I lived in Taipei from August 2014 to June 2015 and am veeerrryyy sloooowwwly making my way through writing posts about my time there.
If you're familiar with Chinese New Year, you'll know that the Lantern Festival was only a few weeks ago. If I had planned things better this post could've been relevant to the holiday instead of...not. YUP. COULD'VE BEEN. Oh well. HAPPY BELATED LANTERN FESTIVAL!!!!
I'm getting tired of Taipei. Where can I go for a fun day-trip out of the city?
[Whips head up from desk, blinks a few times with the finesse of someone who has just learned what eyelids do, smears a dribble of drool—a drooble—off of bottom left corner of mouth.]
You've come to the right place! As you can see [blindly slaps palms around desk looking for glasses], I am a totally professional human who is equipped to help you!
[Finds glasses, smushes them onto face. Scoots closer to computer, which in turn gets me closer to you, Imaginary Person That I Made Up So I Can Pretend I'm Not Just Talking To Myself.]
Do you love cats? Spend a day in Houtong, a village full of cats! Do you love Spirited Away? Head to Jiufen, the mountain village that looks like it influenced the movie, so who cares if Miyazaki says it didn't! Do you love rock formations that vaguely resemble the eroding heads of 16th-century British monarchs? Yehliu's got your weirdly specific interest covered! (At least until the next big earthquake or typhoon.)
Eh, thanks for the suggestions, but I'm not really into any of those things.
[Scoots back.]
- You made me sad.
Hey, I like stuff! I like...
...[waits, unblinkingly]...
...sky fires?
Well, why didn't you say that first? Just head to Pingxi! It's got sky fires galore!
- Tiny sky fires, hidden inside the lanterns.
Pingxi, a rural district nestled among the mountains just an hour east of Taipei, attracts locals and tourists all year round who want to release flame-powered lanterns bearing their personalized wishes into the sky. Why Pingxi? According to the internet, Pingxi is uniquely situated to sort of safely handle floating fireballs enclosed in wire- or bamboo-framed paper cages due to its location in a rainy mountainous area with steady wind patterns. If you want to set off a sky lantern, Pingxi appears to be the only legal place in Taiwan you can do it.
