Eight Taiwan Lantern Festivals (that aren’t the one you think)

Eight Taiwan Lantern Festivals (that aren’t the one you think)
In Chinese, Yuánxiāo jié means Lantern Festival, and while most visitors associate the term with the town of Pingxi (which has turned the annual event into a year-long cottage industry), in fact the festival is a specific happening meant to denote the end of the annual Lunar New Year’s festival.

To use a baseball analogy, if the first six days of Chinese New Year are the playoffs, then the Lantern Festival is kind of like the World Series. Only way more colorful. ( Read more: Why you need to put the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival on your bucket list in 2018)

Since you already know about the Pingxi Lanern Festival, this will be the last mention of it in this article, specifically to let you know that despite it’s popularity, the Pingxi Lantern Festival is by no means Taiwan’s definitive lantern festival.

That honor goes to the first item on our list:

1. The Taiwan Lantern Festival
This is the big Kahuna of Taiwan’s lantern festivals, with everyone from cities and counties to banks, religious groups and private companies vying to outdo each other with the most colorful and creative floats. So important is the nation’s main lantern festival that it moves around the island from year to year (kind of like the world’s fair). 2019’s festival will be held from February 19 to March 3 in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung county.

Click here for more information.

2. Taipei Lantern Festival
Regardless of what the rest of the country is doing, it isn’t a Taiwanese holiday unless Taipei gets into the act, and this year the action centers on the areas around Beimen (North Gate) and Ximen (West Gate) from February 16-24. Expect parades, ceremony and all the colorful pageantry you’d expect to find in Taiwan’s capital city to celebrate the year of the Pig. And yes, Peppa will be present.

Click here to check out the routes.

3. Kaohsiung Lantern Festival
Not to be outdone, Taiwan’s southernmost city also throws a number of lantern festivals annually, including the major city festival lighting up both banks of the Love River between the Kaohsiung and Cisian bridges. Held in 2019 between February 9 and 20, The Kaohsiung festivals feature laser light shows, eating contests, and more lanterns than you can shake a stick at. For the more religiously inclined, the “Three Shans Blessing Lantern Festivals” are held simultaneously at Fo Guang Shan, Cishan and Guanshan Buddhist temples.

Click here for more information.

4. Taichung City Mazu International Festival
Mixing religion, opera, martial arts and religion, this eight-day festival has been going on in Taiwan’s central city since 2004. Expect to see parades featuring gods carried on palanquins by devotees, fireworks, and of course tons of colorful lanterns. 2019’s Taichung Lantern Festival takes place from February 16-24.

Click here for more information.

5. The Yuejin Lantern Festival
Not for nothing is Tainan thought of as the Portland of Taiwan, and to ring in the year of the pig, Tainan will be putting on a month-long festival incorporating lanterns, music, food and plenty of artwork from the young hipsters who call Taiwan’s cultural capital home. Expect to see tons of local artists exhibiting new works mixing classical forms with new media technology.

Click here for more information.

6. The Yuanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival
Taiwan’s most notorious festival (it’s often listed as one of the world’s most dangerous religious celebrations), the Beehive Fireworks Festival, or Beehive Bottle-Rocket Festival, as its sometimes called, is kind of like Spain’s running of the bulls. Except instead of bulls, our festival has bottle rockets, millions of them, launched horizontally out of gigantic boxes called castles directly into throngs of festival participants. If you’re looking for a once-in-a-lifetime Taiwan experience, this is it. 2019’s festival will be held on February 18 & 19.

Click here for more information.

7. Master Han Dan Firework Festival
Though less known than the Tainan festival, Taitung’s Master Han Dan Firework Festival has been going strong for fifty years. The Taitung festival happens on the seventh day of the lunar year (February 19 in 2019) and includes lanterns, music, festivities, and of course dangerous amounts of ordinance.

Lonely Planet wrote an interesting article about the Master Han Dan Firework Festival.

8. Luzhunan Haocaitou Art Festival
Finally, the Luzhunan Haocaitou art festival in Miaoli is a great choice for families visiting with children. In the old days when folks were poorer than they are today, many couldn’t afford proper lanterns (let alone fireworks) and learned to carve radishes, gourds and other items into lovely DIY (and fully compostable) facsimiles. The Luzhunan Haocaitou festival celebrates the thrift and handicraft of old Taiwan.

Click here for more information on 2019’s festival schedule.

Visiting Taiwan in spring (or any other season, for that matter) and looking to explore our very unique festival scene? Read more to find out the 10 festivals that worth planning your Taiwan holiday around or let MyTaiwanTour customizes a trip for you!

Lantern Festivals, Rice Dumplings, and Other Taiwanese Traditions
Yuanxiao Jie, or Lantern Festival, commemorates the end of the Lunar New Year Holidays. The festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first month of the new year according to the lunar calendar, on the night of the full moon.

On the night of Yuanxiao Jie, parades and festivals are held around Taiwan, and every religious, business & civic organization from north to south tries to outdo each other in creating and displaying the most stunningly beautiful lantern-filled floats. Naturally, these displays often feature lanterns and themes based on the year’s zodiac animal. So in 2019, Yuanxiao Jie happens on Tuesday, February 19. Expect to see a great deal of deeply ornate lanterns and floats featuring plenty of pigs. Click here for a lowdown of eight of Taiwan’s best lantern festival spots.

As with many Taiwanese festivals, Yuanxiao Jie has a specific food associated with the holiday, the aptly-named Yuanxiao (元宵) dumpling. These dumplings are very close to Tangyuan  (湯圓), so close that these days most folks think of Tangyuan and Yuanxiao as being interchangeable.

Yuangxiao (元宵）

Tangyuan（湯圓）

It’s easy to see why. Both are made of glutinous rice (but are generally gluten-free and hence safe for visitors with gluten intolerance), and both (being round) can be said to evoke a full moon. But there are subtle differences between Yuanxiao and Tangyuan, and being able to tell the two apart will mark you as a true Taiwan Cuisine expert – at least to folks over fifty (most Taiwanese younger than that don’t know the difference themselves).

So what are the main differences between Yuanxio & Tanyuan?

1. How they’re made

The first difference is preparation. Yuanxiao are rolled around in a basket filled with rice flour, creating a dry, soft surface. Tangyuan are kneaded by hand, creating a smoother, stickier outer dumpling.

Yuanxiao are rolled around in a basket

Tangyuan are kneaded by hand

2. The flavors you’ll find inside

Both can have a variety of fillings, but whereas Yuanxiao generally tend to have sweet, solid fillings like fruit, sesame and bean pastes, Tangyuan contain either sweet or savory stuffings like minced meat, mushrooms or other more salty mixtures. Both are generally served in a soup base, but the broth in which Yuanxiao are served tends to be quite a bit thicker than that of Tangyuan.

3. Seasonality & significance

The other difference between the two dishes concerns the time of year in which they’re traditionally served, and what they symbolize. Tangyuan are considered a traditional part of the winter solstice feast and are meant to symbolize the concept of having grown another year older and wiser. Yuanxiao(as the name implies) are especially significant during the Yuanxiao festival and are meant to signify wholeness, completeness and family reunion.

While associated with different holidays, both Yuanxiao and Tangyuan can be found year-round, and any city in Taiwan will have a number of good restaurants specializing in serving both these dishes and others. We’ve gone ahead and listed our five favorites here in Taipei:

Five Great Places to Get Yuanxiao andTangyuan in Taipei

1.Zheng Jiang Hao 政江號傳統小吃店：

No. 109, Section 2, Jinshan South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106

This traditional hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop serves a variety of different types of soup dumpling ranging from savory to sweet, and is considered a must-visit by visitors looking for a genuinely local Taiwan dining experience.

2.Yu ping yuan 御品元冰火湯圓：

No. 31, Alley 50, Lane 39, Tonghua Street, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106

Game of Thrones fans will appreciate the fire and ice theme of this tiny eatery’s specialty, binghuo tangyuan, shaved ice served with piping hot sweetened rice dumplings.

3.Ba Dong Zai 八棟圓仔湯：

No. 20, Lane 309, Section 2, Zhonghua Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100

This popular soup dumpling shop is known for adding fragrant rice wine to their broth, making their sweet tangyuan an especially spirited dish.

4.Meet Fresh 鮮芋仙

This Taiwanese chain was opened by a farming family fron Taichung dedicated to creating healthy desserts crafted from Taiwan-grown items like rice, taro, sugar, yams and more.  Meetfresh has locations all over the world. Click here to find the one nearest to you.

5.He Xiang Delicious / Dr.Q

Shilin District / Tienmu, Fuhua Road No.24 / MRT: Zhishan Station Exit 1

This small shop just east of Tienmu’s Zhishan MRT station is fairly famous, having been visited by both Lonely Planet and the late Anthony Bourdain. They serve excellent, melt-in-your-mouth meat-filled rice dumplings in soup, as well as traditional tang yuan with a variety of fillings. （Read more: Eight Great Taipei Hole-in-the-wall eateries)

Pedaling Along -The Green, Smart Way to Move About and Get to Know Taiwan

Bicycling has become one of the most popular leisure activities in Taiwan over the past decade or so, and because of this popularity, riding has become increasingly convenient for both local residents and foreign visitors.

From about 2005 to 2009, Taiwan was rife with bike fever. What had once been a niche recreational activity suddenly exploded into the mainstream. Developing in parallel to the burgeoning popularity of cycling was a proliferation of bike paths and dedicated bike lanes. And just when the trend seemed to be subsiding, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung, and even smaller centers such as Changhua introduced public bike-rental systems, spawning a new generation of urban cycling enthusiasts. Below we will explore the rise of Taiwan’s love for cycling, give visitors the necessary info to tap into it, and lastly step into an up-and-coming bicycle shop to see what’s out there for cyclists looking to try something new.

It comes as no surprise that Taiwan’s evolution as a cyclist’s playground is finally being recognized. Both Lonely Planet and the New York Times cited the excellence of its biking networks in recommendations of Taiwan as a top travel destination. Despite its compact size and high population density, Taiwan boasts a stunning diversity of landscapes that can be accessed in short-distance excursions. In a single day, cyclists can marvel at high-mountain vistas, pedal through bucolic rice-paddy areas, and finish on coastal roadways looking down over rocky precipices dropping to the Pacific Ocean. (Read more:Coastal Hualien – Taiwan’s “Secret” Backyard Garden)

Some state that a turning point in Taiwan’s passion for cycling came in 2007, after the release of Island Etude, a film depicting a young deaf man’s seven-day circuit of Taiwan by bicycle. In the same year King Liu, founder of Giant Bicycles, the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, completed a full circuit of Taiwan at the age of 73, saying the tour was the execution of a lifelong dream. This year, Liu completed a second circuit of Taiwan, and in faster time. The passion displayed by Liu for biking, the company’s success in the international market, and its enormous contributions to the island’s cycling environment have made Giant what is probably the most widely respected company in Taiwan. It has earned a reputation for quality, and helped make Taiwan the world’s largest exporter of advanced bicycles.

Circling the island on a bicycle has become a sort of rite of passage for aspiring cyclists, with a number of annual races dedicated to the feat. With route options ranging from 900 to 1,000 kilometers, the journey is completed in anywhere from 5 to 14 days by most. The circuit showcases the island’s stark contrasts, leaving nothing to the imagination. From the mirror-surface irrigated fields of the Yilan Plain and dramatic coastal bluffs of Hualien to the busy urban development of the west coast, a round-island trip exposes the cyclist to Taiwan in all of its facets.

If you lack the time or energy to do a full-island circuit, the ride from Hualien to Taitung makes for a perfect two-day trip, through some of the finest scenery Taiwan has to offer. Another popular choice, regarded by some as one of the most attractive rides in the world, is the 29-kilometer route around Sun Moon Lake. For a relaxing, family-friendly outing, the 15-km path from Hualien City to the beach at Qixingtan is lovely, as is the 17-km one from Nanliao Fishing Port to the Nangang Bird Watching Area in Hsinchu. Taipei City is also home to an extensive system of riverside trails, some of which connect to parts of New Taipei City.

Cyclists seeking more demanding challenges are spoiled for choice in Taiwan as well. Main highways across the mountains pass natural hot-spring areas and awesome cloud-hugging peaks. The Northern Cross-Island Highway (Prov. Hwy 7) is the easiest and most accessible from Taipei, while the Central Cross-Island Highway (Prov. Hwy 8 & 14) is the most arduous. The relentlessly steep section from Taroko Gorge, the jewel in Taiwan’s crown of scenic attractions, to Hehuanshan takes you to the highest section of road in East Asia, at 3,275 meters above sea level. Every November, cyclists from around the world race up this grueling stretch in the Taiwan KOM Challenge, part of the Taiwan Cycling Festival.

In 2009, the Taipei City Government, in collaboration with Giant, established the YouBike public bike-rental system. Requiring no annual fee, and with bikes free for the first 30 minutes, YouBike has the highest usage rate in the world, with the 30 million-user mark recently reached. Over 5,000 bikes are available from 160+ rental stations across the city, 24 hours a day. Bikes can be rented at one station and dropped off at another. With a distinctive orange-and-yellow color pattern, the YouBike features a three-stage derailleur system, wheel-driven front LED light, easy-to-straddle down tube, reflective tires, adjustable saddle, and lock. Each bike is valued at NT$10,000, and is built to withstand above-average usage.

All these factors have made YouBike a smashing success, and the system has already been adopted in the cities of Taichung and Changhua. (Kaohsiung’s C-Bike system, which preceded Taipei’s, was in fact Taiwan’s first public bike-rental system.) Government authorities are experimenting with connecting the Taipei and New Taipei City urban core, but the problem remains that many of the bridges between the two cities are not bicycle-friendly, and require significant alterations. (Read more:Summertime City Cycling and Unstable Weather)

Biking Do’s and Don’ts

When riding in Taiwan, there are a few matters to take into consideration.

• No doubling up on public bikes
• No talking on your phone while riding
• No riding on sidewalks where it is not permitted
• Always be wary of pedestrians as well as scooters
• Walk your bicycle across pedestrian-only bridges
• Ride defensively at all times

Biking Tips

• Keeping yourself hydrated when riding in Taiwan
• Use sunscreen, even on cloudy days, Taiwan’s sun is strong
• When riding longer distances, wear proper bike closing
• Choose dedicated bike paths or smaller country roads to stay clear of heavy traffic

This article was published in Travel in Taiwan magazine (Jan./Feb., 2015)

Join MyTaiwanTour’s Taipei Bicycle, Metro & Walking Tour to explore Taipei by cycling.

Cycle along Taiwan’s most scenic roads in Summer time: Early Summer Sea and Valley Cycling Tour/ in winter time:Hot Springs & Flowers: Eastern Taiwan Cycling Tour.

 

Text: Nick Kembel

Photos: Betty Fan