Lantern Festival in Pingxi

We are back in Taipei for our flight to Okinawa.  Our original plan was to do the Huangdidian hike, and even elected to stay in Jingmei for easy bus connection.  Then the Pingxi Lantern Festival got on our radar again when we picked up some maps from tourist information.  Overcoming our mixed feelings, we went ahead.

• We scraped our Huangdidian plan, did some different hikes.  Trails were slippery wet.  It dawned on us that this is why they even allow the balloons.  The valley is really like a cloud forest.
• There are very few places in the world in which we would risk such a "large crowd" situation.  All the road closures and shuttle buses were even more impressive than we expected.  All day there were more than 100 buses running between Taipei Zoo to the festival.  There was also a separate route to Keelung.  The Pingxi Railway was running on double schedule.  Everything was very organized and orderly.
• My main reservation about the balloons is the trash they turn into spread all over the surrounding landscape.  A festival poster I saw detailed reclamation programs and rewards, and convinced me to go to festival.  When we were walking around, we saw evidence of collection all over the place, though less than sufficient by my standards.
• The amount of hope and earnestness of the place even moved my usual cynical self.

Waiting in front of our hotel for the bus to the Taipei Zoo. In Taipei I'm not so restless waiting for the bus since most bus stops have a digital display of real-time expected arrivals.


The action in Shifen is on the railroad tracks between trains (yikes!) which heightens the experience. Here's a 3-photo sequence of a couple launching their sky lamp/lantern. Note that the fuel is fake paper money soaked in kerosene.






Hope and earnestness.


While some people are launching, others are decorating.


It's a busy beehive of activity on the tracks punctuated by short, impatient lulls when trains come through.














The supply of sky lanterns seems infinite.


And so the countryside nearby is littered with their carcasses even though the locals "harvest" them non-stop.


Moto with a collection of reclaimed bottom bamboo rings.


It is a beautiful sight when the sky is full of lanterns.


We did 2 short hikes. One up, up for a view back to Shifen. And the other to the next village, Wanggu, to a waterfall.


The lanterns are white dots against the green forest (below left) in this photo.


Wreckage.


A quiet temple below the expressway.


A couple shots of the free shuttle buses bringing folks into Shifen.




Video.


The Wanggu Waterfall.


On the way back to Shifen the sky is filled by lanterns and Sun-Ling has a close call. Check out the video below and wait until the end to see a bamboo ring harvester in action with his pole.




In the early evening there were 10 rounds of mass launches at a venue about 1km from the RR tracks. Very cool. Seemed to us that it was mostly tour groups launching lanterns.









Video:


GPS track of our route.

Lantern Festival in Miaoli: Dragons

Miaoli, hardly mentioned by guidebooks, easily passed by, is a curious place.  Miaoli City, seat of the county by the same name, is unlike any other city we have been in Taiwan.  It is more like one of those newly constructed provincial towns in China, monumental government buildings, wide boulevards, mixed sprawling of residential and commercial with no clear centers.  It is home to the Dragon Bombing Festival which takes places around the first full moon of the new year, which is more commonly known as Lantern Festival.  In Taiwan, CNY is more for family celebration, public celebrations are for Lantern Festival.

The Dragon Bombing Festival is a multi-day event, of dragon dance competition, parade, dragon bombing, etc.  After enduring many speeches and pomp by dignitaries and endless chattering by super annoying MCs, we got to see a dozen dragon teams competing for prizes. We're glad that the tradition is going so strong in Miaoli, not to mention "dragon bombing," completely unheard of (by us) previously.  I like all things that involve fire.  As far as fire festivals go, Dragon Bombing seemed exciting enough (my concern), safe enough (John's big concern), rather straight forward, not elaborate -- a nice addition to our fire festival CV.

Miaoli has a bike way. So first thing after arrival and lunch we checked out the Dragon Dance competition venue, then rented a bikes from the bikeshare Youbike and we are off.




The Youbikes are 3-speeds with front and rear lights, disc brakes, adjustable seat, fenders, front basket, built-in lock, kickstand, and more. Rent from any station, return to any station. Foreign VISA cards are accepted at the station kiosk. Perfect, although the bikes are a bit small for me.


The bike way has a tunnel, an old railway tunnel, with colored lights, music, and choo-choo sounds effects, and is an attraction in itself. The occasional tour bus drops off its customers for a walk-through.








We return the Youbikes.


The next day we head over to Yuqing Temple for the Dragon Dance competition where the planned 9:00 am start becomes 9:45 following introductions, speeches, and rules explanations. ;-) Below: All the teams, with their dragons, are assembled in the plaza. Before the competition though, there are some rituals. Then the audience is invited to walk under the dragons for good luck.











Walking under the dragons for good luck.






The judges are seated the competition begins. Each "dance" routine is 6 to 8 minutes long. Basically the dragon chases a ball on the end of a stick.











Each group has a drummer(s).






After the competition we head to a nearby veg resto for the set meal.


A few days later we returned to Miaoli for the parade and dragon bombing events. Start of the parade route.


There were about 30 teams in the parade. These cheerleaders were a hit with the reserved but very attentive crowd.




Here are a few of the teams who varied from traditional to modern to futuristic.




























The noisy, possibly dangerous, dragon bombing is saved for the last teams of the parade. Sun-Ling and I put on our face masks and cotton flannel shirts and...






















The next day we hung out at the guesthouse, then rode the bus a few kms out to the Riverside Park for an event that was mostly dragon bombing.....This part of the festival was a 3-ringed circus. Literally. When we arrived at 5:30pm, in one ring, adults could pay to be lightly dragon bombed ie only one string of firecrackers at a time. In another ring, kids were being bombed by a "yellow noise maker"; no actual firecrackers. And the center ring was preparing for a live video feed.

Adult bombing.


Kiddie bombing.


A big, attentive but quiet crowd with tons of photographers.




At 7:30pm or so two of the rings put on several rounds of some for-real dragon bombing. In this video look for packs of firecrackers (and other explosives) flying into the center of the dragon.






Between round cleanup.








Then some very good "fire twirling" in the center ring.