Youmu

We took a train trip to the Pingxi region just outside of Taipei the other day. It is a mountainous region that used to be full of coal mines. The first stop was a place called Juifen. There are rumours that the movie “Spirited Away” was inspired when Hayao Miyazaki visited. The town was pretty, but was quiet. The next stop was Pingxi. We had some Taiwanese sausages, they were delicious. We did a hike up to some local peaks. There were some sketchy bits that had ropes to hold on to.

The final stop was Shifen . In Shifen we released a lantern. Before you release a lantern, you write hopes and wishes on the 4 sides with special ink and a paintbrush. You then take the lantern onto the train tracks with 2 people who work for the place where you buy your lantern. One of them takes pictures while you release it and the other one lights a stack of paper that is placed on the bottom of the lantern. We had a pink lantern which means we will have happiness

It was really fun to release the lanterns and if I ever went back I would do it again but I would do it at night and try to be there for the Pingxi lantern festival when 1,000’s of lanterns are released into the sky.

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