If you've ever seen the movie Tangled, you know what a sky lantern is.
Well, I can tell you from experience that the magic of sky lanterns isn't just something out of a fairy tale. Every year, the village of Pingxi marks the Chinese New Year with a several week long Sky Lantern (天燈) Festival and fills the sky with so many beautiful lanterns it would make Mandy Moore jealous.
This year's Chinese New Year festivities started on the Lunar New Year, January 23. It is estimated that every year between 100,000 and 200,000 lanterns are released in the cute little hamlet of Pingxi over the course of the festival. However, the biggest day of festivities falls on the last day of the Chinese New Year, which this year was February 6th. On the final day of the festival, the town organizes a big concert and a mass release of 1,000 lanterns at once (it's amazing, see above video).
I wonder what the measure word is for a group of lanterns? Herd, plethora, murder?
Apparently the tradition of lantern launching in the area first began after the Han settled there. There was so much crime in the area that the settlers began using lanterns as a way of signaling to each other that they were safe. This tradition eventually evolved into a full scale yearly festival after the town;s coal mines shut down in the late 20th century and the villagers needed a new source of income. And, when you go, you definitely get the feeling that this event is the town's bread and butter. Everyone and their brother (literally) sets up booths all along the sides of the road selling everything from stinky tofu and grilled squid on a stick to Turkish chicken wraps and patterned bath robes. And, of course, there are lanterns of every size and style for sale everywhere.
Every kind of dumpling imaginable!
This guy was selling brown sugar lollipops, spicy snails, and corn on a stick all at one very enterprising stand
Toy lanterns and night light lanterns for sale next to a stack of ready to launch DIY lanterns
In some ways, today's lanterns still retain some of their original meaning. The only difference is that now, instead of being a symbol of safety, they are used as more of a prayer for safety in the new year. Nowadays, it's become popular for people paint their wishes for the new year, which usually includes something about health and safety, on a lantern and then light them up and let the lanterns carry their wishes to heaven. The streets and train tracks were swarming with people painting their wishes and releasing them. Some of the lanterns were cute, some were funny, one or two were quite pretty and, in accordance with the Chinese zodiac, dragons abounded.
This lantern reads: "Mega Millions + Super Lotto + (something I can't make out in Chinese) = Billionaire!"
This little guy falls firmly into the cute category
One of the more impressively painted dragons (yeah, I was a little jealous of their lantern painting skills)
Cherrica, Christine, and I painted our own lantern with my host parents, Jane and Jason.
Jane's side, she wished for health, luck, and peace in the new year.
Cherrica and I signing our side, complete with dino-dragon holding explosives. It says "Happy year of the dragon!"
Christine drew a crowd that watched eagerly to find out if a foreigner can really write in Chinese (spoiler: she can)
Jason's side
Getting ready to launch our wishes!
There it goes!
Although the whole day was absolutely amazing, nothing can compare to the grand finale mass lantern release and concert. While we didn't get there in time to release a lantern in the first wave (there were already over 2,000 die hards lined up for the noon sign up when we arrived at 11), we were lucky enough to get a place in the third wave of lanterns (and, by default, a better of the first wave when they went off!). It was a great experience and I'm so happy I got to participate in the festivities.
Please note that, while the following pictures and the video at the beginning of this blog are pretty, they just can't do the real thing justice. My advice: If you're ever in Taiwan in early February, you just have to go see the lantern festival for yourself. It's breathtaking!
Setting off the first wave of lanterns
This is what 1,000 lanterns looks like!
Getting ready to set off our (rapidly decorated) lantern
I feel like some sort of "Goodnight Moon" reference would be appropriate here?
October 10th, or Double Ten Day, is celebrated here in Taiwan every year as the National Day. It commemorates the uprising that led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. In other words, it's kind of like the Taiwanese version of the 4th of July. This year, 10-10 was especially exciting because the ROC is celebrating its 100th anniversary!
Commemorative arch set up for the occasion on a street shut down for the occasion
Every year, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds a swanky Double Ten gala for all the diplomats and other important people in Taiwan. This year, all the Fulbrighters were invited. It was very exciting getting to go to a bona fide red carpet affair. We may be just lowly elementary school English teachers but lot of dignitaries and diplomats also attended. The president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, even made an appearance.
My lovely roomie and I on the red carpet
"I'm President Ma and I approve these dumplings." I didn't actually get to meet
him but I did get a chance to stand a few feet away and take his picture!
There were lots of interesting people from all over the world, more delicious food than I could possibly eat, and there was a fantastic traditional dance/drum performance in the middle of the little lake on the property. To be honest, I didn't really make a lot of fancy new political connections. The most famous person I actually talked to was Miss Taiwan (who, I found out after attempting to speak with her in Chinese, is actually from California). I mostly ate a lot of free food and enjoyed the spectacle. All in all, it was a pretty awesome party.
This one's for you, Dad.
Making custard cakes
Yum! We approve.
Giant flowering Taiwan! Let's hear it for agriculture, everyone.
They even hired some artists to make little clay figurines for guests. Apparently making clay miniatures on a stick is a type of traditional handicraft here in Taiwan. Back in the day, they used to be made of edible materials but now they're just for show (and therefore full of toxic chemicals that make the clay easier to mold). Either way, my parrot was way too cute to eat.
The artist and my fun new souvenir. Getting him home in one piece
was a definite challenge but he's very happy at home on my desk now.
As you may know, the Fulbright ETAs here in Taiwan are divided between two counties on pretty much opposite sides of the island, Yilan in the northeast and Kaohsiung in the southwest. Of course, here in Taiwan, distance is kind of relative. So being on opposite sides of the country really means that we're an hour bus ride to Taipei, a short trip on the MRT, and then an hour and a half ride on the high speed railway apart. In other words, when we decided to take a trip down to visit our southern friends for the weekend, we left after lunch and made it in time for dinner.
Being the second biggest city in Taiwan, Kaohsiung has a little bit more variety when it comes to international food than we have back in Yilan. So, of course, we took full advantage of that fact and headed over to General Pancho's for some authentic Mexican cuisine (trust me, it's really hard to find good Mexican food in Asia, so it was something to be excited about).
Outside of General Pancho's with our hosts, Esther and Andrew, and some of our other
Kaohsiung 朋友們 (friends).
Real chicken burrito and margaritas for dinner = a good night.
Saturday was a big day of doing touristy things around the city. To start our morning off right, we headed over to Shoushan (壽山), also known as monkey mountain thanks to the thousands of Formosan rock macaques that call it home. The trailhead was on the far side of National Sun Yat-sen University, so we got a little tour of the campus (which, for the record, is absolutely beautiful) on the way there. We ran into a whole horde of monkeys right next to one of the dorm buildings.
There is a dorm literally 10 yards to our right. How crazy would it be
to live there?!?
Adorable monkey family!
About 5 minutes after this picture was taken, the money pushed Andrew
out of the way and stole his seat
After the hike, we headed over to the former British Consulate building, which is just a little further down on the same mountain. It is a pretty little colonial era red brick building that boasts great views of the city and, best of all, serves afternoon tea! Of course, I had to try it.
The steps up to the former consulate building
A display about how the British made trade deals with Taiwan back in the day
The view of the Cijin Lighthouse
Lauren and I had tea for two! It was a little bit British,
a little bit Taiwanese, and all delicious
We had dinner at an amazing little Thai place that served some of the best fish I've had so far in Taiwan. And, as a tropical island nation, Taiwan is very proud of it's wonderful fresh seafood, so that's saying something.
Spicy lemon pepper Thai fish. Yum!
On Sunday, Esther, Christine and I took the ferry over to Cijin island. It wasn't very good beach weather, so we decided to just wander around town for a bit before hiking up to visit the Cijin lighthouse.
Cijin beach
We're crabs! Not totally sure why this guy was there but I liked him.
Esther and I at Cihou lighthouse
Siena, one of my wonderful LETs, is actually from Kaohsiung county. Since we visited on a holiday weekend (Double Ten weekend, more about that later), Siena had also headed down south for a few days to celebrate with her family. Her parents own a restaurant and she was kind enough to invite Christine and I to come out to meet her family and have a late lunch. It was a bit of a treck to get there but the food was SO good!
Siena
Her family's specialty is Taiwanese style fried chicken. But it's not you average fast-food style fried chicken. As Siena informed us, you have to wait a little while to get you food because the chicken is still alive when you order it. In fact, at their old location, customers used to be able to walk over to the pin and pick out the chicken that they wanted (as a child, she always hated it when it was her job to catch a specific chicken from the pin because sometimes the others would poop on her head). However, since they moved to a more urban location, there isn't room to keep the chicken coup where customers can go see it. Anyhow, this point is that my lunch was very fresh that afternoon.
Fried chicken good enough to rival my grandmother's
After we had stuffed ourselves to capacity, Siena drove us up the side of a mountain to visit a temple and monastery with a great view. Our timing worked out just right because we just happened to arrive right before an elaborate ceremony was put on in front of the temple. Apparently, to keep the idols at one temple from getting too bored, they are sometimes taken to visit the idols at other temples. Then, when it comes back home, the worshippers go through an elaborate procession with lots of dancing in order to welcome back the returning idol. Here's a clip from the dance (the whole thing lasted about 10 minutes):
As promised, here is the story of the trip Christine and I took to Keelung. It starts with wet pants, ends with us befriending some of Capitol Star's finest bus drivers, and we pretty much ate everything in between.
The morning dawned wet and grey (as they have a tendency to do here in Yilan county). But Christine and I decided that we weren't going to let a little thing like a torrential downpour stop us from venturing up the east coast. So we headed out the door to Keelung. This seemed like a slightly less good idea by the time we got to the bus station, as we were soaked to the bone from the scooter ride despite our rain gear.
Taiwan Centennial celebration rooster at the Keelung Cultural Center.
We had more or less dried out by the end of the hour and a half bus ride. After a quick visit to the Keelung Cultural Center to get out of the rain, we found a Dunkin Donuts!
I got a Boston creme and coffee. It was almost like home. Of course, since it is Taiwan, there were a few differences:
Boston creme and a half chocolate/half creme filled square
"Love" donuts
Once we had a good caffeine/chocolate buzz going, we hopped on a local bus and headed up to a picturesque little village called Jiufen. The town is literally hanging out on the side of a mountain, so the bus ride was a little scary but the view was totally worth it.
The view from the top: It was a little wet and foggy but still beautiful!
A bit of fun background information: Back in the day, there were nine families that lived in the village. So, every time someone went down the mountain and into town, the had to bring back nine of everything to share with their neighbors. So the name Jiufen (九份)literally translates to "nine portions." Then, gold was discovered in the 1890s and, as usual, a gold rush ensued, turning the isolated little village into a town. A lot of the town's development occurred during the 50 year Japanese colonization of Taiwan and many of the Japanese features are still prominent today. In fact, downtown Jiufen was used as a model for the Miyazaki film Spirited Away.
Christine on the most famous section of old street
A small sample of the crazy ocarinas
After thoroughly exploring old street and picking up some sweet decorative ocarinas (they're big here, don't ask me why) from a local artisan, we finished off the day by heading back to Keelung to check out the night market.
... and now we arrive at the photo montage of food and of me eating things...
I was told when I first arrived in Taiwan that eating was pretty much a national pastime. Taiwanese people are very proud of their cuisine and, in addition to some of the more ubiquitous Taiwanese dishes that show up all over the island, pretty much every city or county has its own specialties that you just have to try when you go visit (otherwise you've failed as a tourist in their eyes).
The Keelung Night Market
Seafood is big here
The making of one of Keelung's famous oyster omlettes
It tasted okay but I was not a big fan of the texture
The night market is known for its "pot side noodle soup." It was pretty good. Even the flowers in it were tasty
Some various tentacles on sticks
Japanese style squid balls. Not quite as good as Taiwanese style squid balls but these come with wasabi sauce!
Our evening became even more interesting after we left the night market and tried to go home. We couldn't for the life us us figure out where to buy bus tickets for the company we needed to use to get home. So we ended up following a random Capitol Star bus down the street in the hopes that it would take us to the bus station. Instead, it took us to the motorpool where all the off duty buses hang out. We ended up making friends with some of the security guards and one of the bus drivers who was on break. It turns out that the driver who was on break was about to drive the route back to Yilan and Luodong. They took pity on us and let us hang out in their little guard house (all the while testing the limits of our Chinese skills) for a while until he was ready to leave. Then he took us with him to the station and all the way home back to Luodong.
