Pingxi Old Street Introduction
Pingxi Old Street has an ancient flavor, with traditional houses built along the sloping hills and beside the railway tracks. It is also the well-known location where the main characters of the popular Taiwanese film "You Are the Apple of My Eye" released sky lanterns to make wishes. Most of the nearby businesses are traditional grocery stores, hardware stores, and snack shops, reflecting the simple daily lives of the local residents. The classic railway journey through the mountainous town creates a unique ambient sound of "rumbling" whenever a train passes over the towering railway bridge above the old street. This century-old coal mining town still retains its traditional linear street houses and stores in the style of the Japanese colonial period, giving the street a subtle Japanese aesthetic. The Baosheng Temple's Eight Immortals Cave and the air-raid shelters left from the late Japanese rule are also popular spots for adventurers. Pingxi Old Street offers many local popular Taiwanese snacks, so don't forget to buy some to taste, as they will surely give you a great value experience. The Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi 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 deliver military messages. Due to the frequent presence of bandits in the past, sky lanterns served as signals to report safety. In the 1990s, Pingxi district designated the sky lantern as its unique cultural activity, providing a new avenue for tourism in Pingxi, which had been experiencing population decline. Today, the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival has become an important celebration during Taiwan's Lantern Festival, known as "Northern Sky Lanterns, Southern Firecrackers," and has frequently appeared in international media, becoming one of the most representative festivals in New Taipei City.
