The Shifen Lantern festival was amazing, and probably one of my highlights for this trip. After hopping the train again from the waterfall hike we finished off the day with our first ever "Tangled Experience."
Shifen was crazy crowded, and is literally just a huge train station where you can decorate, light, and let fly your dreams and wishes in the shape of a 5 foot lantern. Eventually it raises up and then catches fire, letting your dreams and desire ascend to heaven.
We each took turns writing what we wanted on each side of the lantern.
It was so cute to see the girls writing things about the temple, being daughters of God, Heavenly Father loves you, of course an ode to unicorns (naturally), etc. Made me grateful that they are "getting it."
The lantern had four sides, you can see each of the sides below:
After ensuring that monster didn't paint everyone or another lanterns with deep black paint, we were ready. Timing it just right where we weren't going to get hit by a train, we went out on to the tracks and lit our lantern on fire. It filled up with hot air and rose above the earth. All our wishes and happiness rose above the city and into the sky, symbolizing our prayer to Heavenly Father.
This was so beautiful! We lastly found this amazing old bridge that was near, and after getting our final photos I was fortunate enough to find a taxi driver that would take us back to Taipei - easily an hour away. This taxi driver eventually became a wonderful friend to the family, and we hired him to be our personal driver for the remaining 2 days we had as to avoid further sardine experiences!
-Kevin
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