Pingxi and Shifen Sky Lanterns

New Taipei City’s tourism site says that “in accordance with current laws and regulations, Pingxi is the only area in Taiwan where sky lanterns can be released outside”. The day tours from Taipei release theirs on Shifen Old Street, in Pingxi District. On most of them the lantern is extra: on the Shifen, Jiufen and Yehliu day trip it costs approximately NT$200-250, shared by 2 to 4 guests. If you want it in the price, Edison Tours’ Yehliu, Jiufen, Shifen & Sky Lantern day includes a lantern for every 3 to 4 guests, at US$79.04 per adult (checked November 2026).

What New Taipei City says

The city’s article on the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival gives its reasons why lanterns belong to Pingxi (14 November 2026; the article is undated). Pingxi is one of the areas in Taiwan with the most rainy days, often above 75% relative humidity, and the damp “prevents sky lanterns from wreaking havoc after they fall to the ground”. It is ringed by mountains with no airport nearby. After each festival the city runs a mountain clean-up and cultural tour in which participants help collect the fallen lanterns.

On its Pingxi Line itinerary the city says the lantern shops on Shifen Old Street “are in business weekdays and holidays”, and asks visitors to “follow traffic signs and not randomly cross the railroad tracks”. Taiwan’s Tourism Administration places Shifen “administratively” in Pingxi District, and says the Shifen Visitor Center, a 15-minute walk from Shifen Station along the Old Street, runs classes on making sky lanterns.

The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival

The city has held the festival in Pingxi since 1999, on the night of the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. It holds two release sessions a year, on the Lantern Festival day and on one weekend before the festival, and each year’s main lantern, up to 20 feet tall, takes the Chinese zodiac sign of the year. You write on the rice-paper lantern with a brush, and paper money put inside it as fuel lifts it.

The city also tells what it calls the most well-known story of where the lanterns come from: Zhuge Liang, also called Kongming, sent paper lanterns up to carry military messages when his army was besieged, which is why they are also called Kongming lanterns.

What a lantern costs on a day tour

No issuer publishes a lantern price. On MyProGuide Inc.’s Shifen, Jiufen, and Yehliu Guided Day Trip the lantern is not in the price: it “costs approximately NT$200-250, depending on the color option, and can be shared by 2-4 guests”, and the guide can help you buy one. On the same company's Viator day the sky lantern fee is an extra too.

GetYourGuide prices checked November 2026, regular price per adult unless the row says otherwise; Viator checked November 2026, review figures counting Viator and Tripadvisor reviews together.

So the choice is between US$79.04 per adult with the lantern and a group capped at 25 (Edison Tours), and US$45.00 per adult with a lantern bought on the street, about NT$200-250 for 2 to 4 guests (the day trip).

Pick by group and budget:

Prices, ratings and review counts from the listings (GetYourGuide checked November 2026). The price for your date and group shows before you pay, so treat these figures as a guide, not a quote.

Shifen or Pingxi village?

The day tours stop at Shifen, not at Pingxi village further up the line. YOLO Taiwan’s private tour words its lantern stop as “Pingxi (Shifen Station)”. Shifen Old Street is also where the trains run between the shops; Shifen Waterfall covers the falls a short way off, and the day trip prices the rest of the bill.