Worth it if
Romantics. Families with children. Anyone who wants a mountain day without serious hiking. The train journey itself is worth making.
Skip it if
Travelers who find sky lanterns irredeemably kitsch. The area is commercially oriented around a single activity; if it doesn't appeal, the day trip from Taipei has limited other content.
Pingxi (平溪) is a township in the mountains of New Taipei reached by a single-carriage heritage railway from Ruifang Junction. The line was built in 1921 to carry coal from mountain mines. Today the sky lantern release that happens here year-round has become Taiwan's most photographed single activity. Ten minutes down the railway line is Shifen, where the tracks run through the middle of the old street and the Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布) — Taiwan's largest curtain waterfall — drops 20 metres over a horseshoe cliff.
The sky lantern release is genuinely atmospheric at dusk: write wishes on the paper, light the fuel cell, release from the railway tracks, watch it rise into the valley above the mining town. The landscape it happens in — a narrow valley with mountains on all sides, old railway tracks below the lanterns — makes the cliché forgivable. Shifen Waterfall is the better kept secret on the same line: wide, loud, surrounded by forest, with almost no queue.
The sky lantern experience is both a cliché and, at dusk on a weekday, unexpectedly moving. The daytime version — lanterns released at noon over a crowded railway track — is all form. The same activity at 5:30pm, when the valley is darkening and the lanterns actually glow against the sky, is different in kind. Shifen Waterfall is underrated: the walk from the Old Street takes 20 minutes and the scale of the curtain fall is larger than most travel photos suggest. The train ride itself — one carriage, winding mountain railway, occasionally running through people's back gardens — is worth making for the journey alone.
On the ground
Why locals go
The Pingxi Line is one of Taiwan's best heritage railway experiences — a single-carriage train on a line that survived the coal mines closing solely because the tourism value justified keeping it running.
What visitors miss
Most visitors release lanterns in Shifen (on the same line but a different town) and skip Pingxi itself. The short walk to the Pingxi Shiyingtong Trail and the Old Street's quieter northern end are worth the extra 20 minutes.
Practical tips
Take the TRA from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang Station (40 minutes), then the Pingxi Line heritage train to Shifen or Pingxi. The full line costs about NTD 80.
Lantern releases cost NTD 150-200 per lantern including a paint marker. Most launches happen on the railway tracks in front of Shifen Old Street.
Shifen Waterfall trail: 20 minutes walk from Shifen Station along the river. Free to enter.
Location
Visit info
Best time
Weekday mornings for the Shifen Waterfall (almost no tourists before 10am). Lantern releases are best at dusk when the lights show against the fading sky.
Location
New Taipei
Tags
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Taiwan
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