Pingxi Old Street Introduction
Pingxi Old Street has an old-fashioned charm, with traditional houses built in sequence along the sloping hillside and beside the railway. It is also the iconic location where the male and female leads of the hit Taiwanese film "You Are the Apple of My Eye" released sky lanterns to make wishes. Most of the local businesses are traditional grocery stores, hardware shops, and snack stands, reflecting the simple daily lives of the local residents. The classic mountain town railway experience features the unique sound of trains rumbling as they pass over the towering railroad bridge above the old street, creating a characteristic environmental sound of Pingxi. This century-old coal mining mountain town still retains its traditional row houses and shops styled from the Japanese colonial period, lending a subtle elegance to the street. Nearby attractions like the Eight Immortals Cave at Guanyin Rock and the air raid shelters left from the late Japanese colonial period, along with the Peace Bell, are also great spots for exploration. Pingxi Old Street offers many popular local Taiwanese snacks, so don't forget to buy some to taste, which will surely give you a sense of great value. The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year is said to have been invented by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period, initially used to convey military messages. In the early years, the Pingxi area often faced mountain banditry, and the sky lanterns served as signals of safety. In the 1990s, the Pingxi District officially adopted sky lanterns as a featured folk event, creating a new avenue for tourism amidst the population outflow. Now, the New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival has become an important celebration during the Lantern Festival in Taiwan, often referred to as "Northern Sky Lanterns, Southern Firecrackers." It has frequently made headlines in international media and has become one of the most representative festive activities in New Taipei City.
