Shifen Old Street

This guide to Shifen Old Street outside Taipei follows the coal railway Japanese colonial administrators laid through the Pingxi Valley in 1918, and the mining settlement that grew up beside the tracks until the mines closed in 1971. It also traces the sky lantern tradition back to mid-1800s bandit raids, when villagers hiding in the hills used floating lanterns as an all-clear signal to call each other home. Listen for how that same beam of light later became something people wrote their own wishes on. Keep an ear out for the train horn as you write yours.