Experience the Magic of Pingxi Sky Lanterns in 2026

The 2026 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will be held in February, one of the most atmospheric Lantern Festival experiences in New Taipei, set in Pingxi, New Taipei City.

The period around the Lantern Festival is when the lanterns are at their most spectacular, but I have to be honest with you: exactly which days and which nights have the mass releases shifts slightly each year according to the official arrangements. So if you're booking time off or buying train tickets, please go by the dates announced officially, keeping the general window in February, around the Lantern Festival, and then tighten your itinerary once the official schedule is confirmed.

In fact, Pingxi's lanterns aren't only released during the Lantern Festival — throughout the tourist season, on ordinary days, the lantern shops are open all day, and you can release one whenever you come. It's just that on those Lantern Festival nights the authorities hold a mass release in the square, with hundreds of lanterns rising at once — a scene you won't see on ordinary days.

Pingxi is up in the mountains, and the most fitting way in is to take the Pingxi Line, this branch railway, all the way there. Off the train you're at Pingxi Station; the platform is small, and the moment you step out, the mountain air is a few degrees cooler than Taipei.

The town is very narrow, two rows of old houses pressing out a single walkable main street, with the railway running right along its edge — every so often a train comes, and the whole street has to stop, quietly, to let it pass. This image of the railway pressed so close to daily life is itself part of Pingxi.

For getting around locally, the train runs back and forth between Pingxi Old Street and the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival venue, the most practical way to move during the festival. Hand your comings and goings over to this line and you'll save a lot of effort finding your way on the mountain roads.

If this is your first time in Taiwan, I'd highly recommend putting the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival into your itinerary. It blends blessing-prayers, the mountain-town railway and Lantern Festival culture together — an experience that needs no prior knowledge, one that moves you the moment you step into it.

It's also especially suited to people travelling together. Releasing a sky lantern isn't something one person can really do alone — the lantern is large, and two people each have to grip one bottom corner, waiting for the fuel block in the centre to catch before the lantern slowly swells. So it's a ritual that by nature needs "togetherness": you and your companion each pinch a corner, watching that flame stretch the thin paper inch by inch into a glowing globe. That shared understanding is a very intimate part of the journey.

My advice is to hand the pace over to the time of day. It's recommended to arrive to watch between 18:00 and 20:00 in the evening, the stretch when the sky is darkening inch by inch and the lantern lights are at their most beautiful.

After arriving, first head to a lantern shop and buy one; unfolded, it's four faces of thin white cotton paper, and the owner will hand you a brush so you can write words on it, write your wish — what it is need not be said aloud.

Then comes the most important moment: you and your companion hold the lantern by opposite corners, wait for the fuel block to catch and the lantern body to swell, and when the owner says "about ready," the two of you let go at once. The lantern leaps up, over the eaves of the old houses, over the streetlamps, up into that dark blue above the valley — rising faster than you'd imagine, and in minutes only an orange point of light remains.

After watching the lanterns, follow the train back to stroll around Pingxi Old Street, or just catch the return train and lean on the window watching the mountains darken through. For one evening, this density is just right.

It's crowded during the Pingxi festival period; the train is the mainstay for travelling between the Old Street and the venue, so make it the backbone of your comings and goings and don't suddenly decide to switch to another method.

Let me stress the arrival time once more: 18:00 to 20:00 in the evening. Arriving within this window, you'll catch the release when the sky is at its most beautiful while also avoiding the later chaos.

The mountain town's main street is narrow enough for walking only, and with the railway pressed right against the street — when a train comes the whole street has to give way — so please allow more buffer time for moving around than usual. Slow your steps down a little, and you'll actually see more.

On cost, the main expense is simply buying a lantern at a lantern shop. The lantern shops are open all day through the tourist season, and of course they're open on those Lantern Festival nights too, so you needn't worry about being unable to buy one on the spot.

As for how to release it, the process is actually quite simple: buy the lantern, unfold the white cotton paper, write down your wish with the brush the owner gives you, then hold one bottom corner each with your companion, at opposite corners, wait for the fuel block to catch and the lantern body to swell, and at the owner's word "about ready" let go at the same time.

Writing down your wish, releasing the lantern, and waiting for it to rise is exactly the core experience of this festival. The weight of that lantern in your palm grows lighter, bit by bit, in the second you let go.

Mountain weather: Pingxi is up in the mountains, noticeably cooler at night than Taipei, and the mountain wind rises from the valley mouth, carrying the night's chill and a thread of scorched cotton paper. Be sure to bring an extra jacket.

Crowds and flow: On those Lantern Festival nights the authorities hold a mass release, hundreds of lanterns rising at once — a spectacular scene, and correspondingly crowded. The main street is narrow and the railway is pressed against it, so moving around will be slower than usual; please be patient and follow the train and the arrival times.

Safety and clothing: Releasing a sky lantern involves an open flame and a fuel block, so be sure to follow the instructions of the lantern shop and the on-site staff. For clothing, sports shoes and light, casual wear are recommended, which make walking the mountain town's flagstones and the platform steadier.

Because behind this lantern lies a very real history. In early days bandits often raided the hills, and villagers fled into the mountains; releasing a sky lantern was a signal of safety, telling the family left behind, "We are all right." A lantern of reassurance later became a town's light of wishes — what you release in your hands is a piece of culture left behind by time.

And its most moving quality, I feel, isn't in how high the lantern climbs. In the second you let go, that lantern has long since merged into others' light, no telling which one was your own; having set a thing free with your own hands, your heart feels no alarm, only steadiness.

On the train back, now and then an orange lantern still drifts overhead, not far gone, turning slowly in the wind, until the train rounds a bend and leaves it behind. Where the few words written on the lantern will drift, you'll never know — and I think you too will find that this "not knowing" is, of all the journey, the lightest and most reassuring thing. This is the reason it's worth coming in person.