Releasing Sky Lanterns Along Le' Old Railway
We took a cab to the Shifen Old Street as it was a hassle to take public transport - as tourists, we cannot afford to waste time on waiting for bus. In order to maximise our time and money, we shared the same cab with a few other tourists who were coincidentally waiting for public transport and heading towards the same direction as us. After a round of haggling the taxi fares with the cabbie, we managed to get a good rate and departed for Shifen and then Jiufen.
Shifen Old Street (十分老街)
The Shifen Old Street section of Pingxi District (平溪) is situated in an Old Railroad Town setting.
The Pingxi Branch Line of the TRA (Taipei Railway Administration) was initially built to transport coal. Now, it is a tourist hotspot to release Sky Lanterns (天燈) along the old railway!
In the past, Sky Lanterns were released as a form of reminder for those living and working in the rugged terrain to watch out for their safety. In today's context, tourists paint their prayers /wishes onto the Sky Lanterns and release them in the hope of getting them answered.
Rows of shops selling food, souvenirs and sky lanterns were present along the old railway to cater to the needs of the influx of tourists.
Releasing Sky Lanterns (放天燈)
Releasing Sky Lanterns is a must when you are here.
We've always thought that Sky Lanterns look best when released during dusk as they can glow in the pitch darkness. However, our cabbie uncle advised that the best time to visit Shifen is during the day as your photos will turn out a lot better when you take them in broad daylight.
And we do agree that it is true as our cameras cannot capture night scenes perfectly :)
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| Chart explaining the what each colour represent and the sample wishes you can paint onto the Sky Lanterns |
Different colour of the Sky Lantern represents different desires...
As greedy homo sapiens, we chose the four-facet multi-coloured Sky Lanterns so that our wishes are being granted in all aspects!
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| Releasing OUR Sky Lantern |
The staff helped us to light up our Sky Lantern after we have written our prayers and wishes on it.
The Sky Lantern floated up into the deep blue sky after it was filled with hot air.
However, you have to beware of incoming trains as the Old Railway is still very much functioning! The bell will ring whenever the train is approaching and tourists were being shooed off the tracks to let the train pass by. What a rare sight!
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| Along the Old Railway |
We thought that the trains would look really old and fugly.. But they were spray painted with a vast array of vibrant colours :) After posing along the old railway, we headed off to the bridge area for some sight-seeing.
We spotted a few Sky Lanterns which have collapsed along the river bank and we hope that none of them belongs to us as we wanted our prayers to be answered!
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| Exploration @ the Jing An Bridge (静安桥) |
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| View @ the Other End of the Bridge... |
Ending off with a Selfie which left me feeling really amazed - coincidentally the cloud looked like a RABBIT at the top left corner of the photo below!!
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| Da Rabbit posing with a Rabbit Cloud!! How Fluffy ~ |
Do check out our previous post - Highlights of Taipei: Tamsui (淡水老街, 渔人码头) & Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) soon!
Coming Up Next: Highlights of Taiwan: Jiǔfèn 九份老街
P.S.
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