Type Taiwan Lantern Festival into a search engine, and chances are you’ll see plentiful photos of lanterns flying into the night sky. You’ll either go wow, or that must be terrible for the environment. Either way, there’s no denying it’s beautiful, but it isn’t the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
Rather, the night when hundreds of lanterns are sent into the sky is the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival. Yes, it happens during the same time as the Taiwan Lantern Festival around Lunar New Year (February or March), but these are two very different events in different locations. Thankfully, you could visit both in one trip with some planning.
While neither of Taiwan’s Lantern Festivals is particularly time-honoured, the history of lantern festivals likely dates back over 2000 years to at least the Han dynasty. These vary across Asia, from floating displays in Hoi An, Vietnam, to aerial releases such as those special days in Pingxi. Taiwan’s main Lantern Festival is a static display of creative lanterns, light shows, and performances, and although nothing flies, it’s still an enchanting time to visit one of my favourite islands.
What’s the differnce between the Taiwan Lantern Festival and Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival?
The Taiwan Lantern Festival is a national event established by the tourism board in 1990. It lasts a few weeks and is hosted by a different Taiwanese county every year to attract visitors to another part of the country. Lanterns are more artistic but static, and cultural performances and events take centre stage. There are no flying lanterns at all.
Pingxi’s Sky Lantern Festival is when lanterns float into the sky at night, although only on a couple of days a year. The Pingxi event is more traditional – lantern releases around Shifen are at least a century old – and this area is where daytime, individual lantern flying happens year-round. Huge crowds descend on these tiny villages for this essentially one-night event, and you’ll need to dedicate a whole day to it and plan ahead.
Visiting the Taiwan Lantern Festival
Despite the intense, unexpected rain during my visit, I thoroughly enjoyed the Lantern Festival. When I first arrived at the central location – in 2025, this was Taoyuan City – I found it smaller than expected.
There was an area with various lantern displays, including professional and children’s creations, and a stage where contemporary and folk performers representing each of Taiwan’s counties performed. I watched a few dances and an incredible light and music show, ambled around the rows of lanterns, and saw it all in about an hour.
But then I realised there was another section, so I set off in search of it. No lie, two hours later, after walking through hundreds of other lantern displays, temporary temples, free giveaways and activities for people of all ages, I’d gone so far that I’d arrived at the next train station, which I jumped on to return to Taoyuan HSR. Everyone I met (staff and domestic tourists) were so friendly and went out of their way to explain the different elements and displays to me as a visitor, often via a translation app.
Every year the Taiwan Lantern Festival is hosted by a different county with a slightly different theme. The dates also vary depending on the Lunar calendar – check schedules on the Taiwan Tourism Board’s website. As such, there’s little point in providing practical or specific details here, as it will be different whenever you visit.
In 2026, Chiayi County will host events in various city locations between the 3rd and 15th of March. In 2027, Miaoli County (Zhunan is likely one location) will take the lead in late February. Wherever it is, it should always be fairly easy to reach by using Taiwan’s high-speed rail network.
Is it worth visiting the Taiwan Lantern Festival?
If you’re already in Taiwan, absolutely. I don’t necessarily think the festival event alone is worth planning your Taiwan trip dates around, though. However, there are some other excellent reasons to visit around Lunar New Year (see below). Also, the decorations are visible throughout the country during this season, with lanterns strung everywhere, making it a colourful time to visit Taiwan. Adding the Lantern Festivals to your itinerary is a bonus – unless you prefer to guarantee better weather, then you’ll want to arrive later in spring.
Attending the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival
While the main national lantern festival lasts a couple of weeks, the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is limited to just a few days. During this time, some lanterns are released every night. However, there is only one (possibly two) main release nights, attended by up to 80,000 people, and these are the nights reflected in all the photos. As with the main Lantern Festival, dates vary; in 2026, this should be in the first week of March.
Unlike the main event, which changes location annually, the Sky Lantern Festival is always around Pingxi, with the actual main release in Shifen. Year-round, this lush valley is a popular place to come and release a wish lantern – colourful, large lanterns you can purchase easily and write a wish on before launching. It’s also cool to visit for the old train line that dates back to the Japanese occupation and served the mines here. On a typical day, it’s only a couple of hours from Taipei by train, but during the Lantern Festival, you’ll need to dedicate a whole day to the event due to the number of people attending.
Attending Pingxi’s Sky Lantern release is free; you just pay a small amount of money for each lantern you want to release. Online registration is complicated for foreigners, so you can purchase an excursion with Klook or just turn up. Arrive very early to register if you want to release lanterns, or just early if you only want to get a good position to watch. Releases on the main day start at 6.30 pm and continue every 30 minutes until 9:30 pm.
Is the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival environmentally friendly?
In a word, no. While there has been an effort in recent years to change the lanterns’ construction to natural or biodegradable materials, such as rice paper and bamboo cases (watch my friend Alex’s video below to see them), setting off flaming paper lanterns en masse into a forest is never going to be environmentally friendly.
To Taiwan’s credit, this is why the main Lantern Festival doesn’t release lanterns. Likewise, there is a team of post-festival forest cleaners who are paid and further incentivised on numbers collected, to head out around Pingxi following the festival to retrieve the lanterns. However, with such a dense canopy, they will never all be found, and this team mainly works around the festival.
I returned to Pingxi a few weeks later alone and spotted plenty of lantern remains stuck in trees and along the riverbanks. Still, I’m not here to lament a local tradition, but as travellers, we should be mindful of taking part, especially when it’s possible just to watch, and thus, slightly reduce the numbers going into the air.
Other reasons to visit Taiwan around the Lunar New Year
I’d still say this is a cracking time to plan a visit to Taiwan. Alongside enjoying the main Lantern Festival, Sky Lanterns (if you want), and the Lunar New Year celebrations, the Sakura season brings cherry blossoms across the country.
Of course, when the Lunar New Year falls will determine if you’re travelling at the end of winter or just before the start of spring. Thankfully, Taiwan’s Sakura season is relatively long – more so than in Japan – so northern blossoms usually start appearing in early February and continue until late March or even early April in the south.
Regardless of the dates it falls on, once the Lunar New Year holidays are over, it’s pretty much the low season for a couple of weeks, meaning you can tour the country at fair prices and access sights more easily. I was able to book both my Sun Moon Lake and Alishan Railway excursions just a few days out; in high season, there’d be little chance of a ticket without booking well in advance. I also was only planning 24 hours ahead for destinations and hotels and had no issue finding affordable accommodation.
Getting to Taiwan
For those travelling from London, there are direct flights with British Airways and China Airlines. I flew with highly commended EVA Air (discount code: EVATW). The service and setup onboard were solid, making the long economy class flight tolerable. Flights aren’t direct, though, with a technical stop (everyone must deplane and reboard) in Bangkok, Thailand. This adds a couple more hours to the journey but also means you can stretch your legs before the final, shorter stretch and grab a proper morning coffee.
You might want to consider capitalising on this and having a stopover in one direction to enjoy the more tropical Thai weather or a beach island trip, especially if coming for the Lantern Festival, as this will provide a warmer contrast to Taiwan’s cooler end-of-winter temperatures. Get 10% off Eva Air flights by booking directly and using my code: EVATW
Taiwan Tourism and Traverse Events hosted my visit to the Taiwan Lantern Festival. As always, opinions are my own. Afterwards, I spent extra time touring the country on my own budget and even returned a few weeks later for a second visit – a testament to how much I loved this island nation.
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