A 23-year-old festival celebrating eternal prosperity in Taiwan…
The Fire Lion at Kaohsiung Zuoying 10,000 Years Festival. Photo: Zhen-Kang.
It’s hard to find English-language information about Kaohsiung’s 10,000 Years Festival (Wan Nian Festival / 高雄左營萬年季). Last year, it took place while a friend was visiting from Australia. But, unable to find details about the event, after a 45-minute scooter ride north to Zuoying District, we arrived to a dispersing crowd and an empty stage.
This year I was more fortunate: I was invited by a local from the neighboring Nanzih District so, for the second year in a row, I rode 45 minutes north to see the show. But this time, I actually saw it.
10,000 Years, established 2001
The festival takes place around Lotus Pond (蓮池潭) in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District.
Zuoying began as a military fortress in 1661. Nowadays, it hosts Taiwan’s largest naval base and naval academy, and the Zuoying Naval Airfield.
Consequently, large parts of the district are blurred in Apple Maps’ satellite view:
The blurred military facilities of Zuoying District (left) and Niaosong District (right). Lotus Pond is visible immediately below the words ‘Zuoying District’.
The First 10,000 Years Festival was held in 2001. It was created to satisfy cultural and economic goals: commemorating historical events and revitalizing cultural heritage, while promoting domestic tourism.
And it worked: 10,000 Years is now the largest folk festival in Southern Taiwan, attracting 200,000 people every year.
It feels like something that’s been around forever.
Historical symbolism
The festival preserves and promotes traditional folk religion—a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese folk beliefs, and indigenous Taiwanese traditions.
Lotus Pond is therefore a good place to host it, as a kind-of spiritual hub in Kaohsiung. There are roughly 12 temples next to the lake, and another 18 nearby.
The most famous are the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas (龍虎塔). They’re currently masked by scaffolding, so here’s a photo I took in 2023:
For good luck, you enter through the dragon’s mouth, climb both pagodas, then exit through the tiger. The pagodas were closed when I took this photo, which is why the tiger appears to be eating a roller door.
About that name: 10,000 Years Festival
In Chinese and Taiwanese culture, the number 10,000 (萬) is used to symbolize something enduring, eternal, or vast. It’s a metaphor for immense longevity and prosperity.
The phrase Wan Nian (萬年) literally translates to “10,000 Years”. The festival’s name therefore references Zyuoing’s cultural legacy, while invoking blessings that may exist for generations.
So, on to the festival…
Scooter parking was tight. We ended up finding a spot in this roofed open-air market, which was deserted on a Sunday night.The market was across the street from the Kaohsiung City Temple of Confucius (左營孔子廟), which marked the northern end of the festival.This night market, almost 1.5km long, stretched down the western side of the lake.We started with food from this two-product food truck, sharing a vegetarian-pork roll (NT$100 / NZ$5) and a box of three-cup vegetable rice (NT$80 / NZ$4).A six-story-tall statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, watched proceedings from atop the Chingshui Temple (洲仔清水宮). Lotus Pond was created as an agricultural reservoir in the 1950s, but its now surrounded by high-rise apartments with no farmland in sight.The Black Emperor, Xuanwu, was also facing the crowd.This area, to one side of the market, was a peaceful spot to eat. Ten meters behind me, there was barely space to breathe……I later checked the map and saw it’d taken one hour to walk 300 meters in the crowd.I saw a few cats in backpacks and dogs in strollers—an approach to pet ownership that’s utterly normal and conventional in Taiwan.Just before 7:30pm we reached Zuoying Ciji Temple (慈濟宮龍虎社修善堂) at the south end of the lake, in time to see the star of the show: the Fire Lion.The Fire Lion (火獅) represents good fortune and protection against evil spirts. At 7:30pm, he started exhaling smoke as he was carried through the crowd. People cheered as the he surged back and forth, with the crowd expanding and contracting around him. It was loud and chaotic and seemingly-almost-but-never-quite-completely out of control. The most excited I’ve been about religion since that time I accidentally liked Christmas.And then he was off—on a 50-minute procession through the nearby streets of Zuoying. The temple forecourt emptied in seconds.Rather than follow, we took a short-cut through some back-streets to wait for the Fire Lion at his destination……Stopping at this stall on the way, to buy lemon-and-wintermelon iced tea. The air temperature had dropped to a humid 26ºC, one of the coolest evenings so far this side of summer.As we drank tea and waited outside Fengyi Old City Chenghuang Temple (鳳邑舊城城隍廟), one of Taiwan’s famous musical garbage trucks pulled up outside. A temple, a musical garbage truck, a million scooters, and tea: this scene couldn’t be more Taiwanese.Something else that’s very Taiwanese: three people on one scooter. (The legal limit’s two people, regardless of age.)Nearly an hour after leaving the other temple, the procession arrived, led by this Tony Tony Chopper truck……Marching girls……And a dragon.The dragon danced around the Fire Lion as he approached the temple.Then, the dragon disappeared inside and the Fire Lion parked up out front for people to admire. And with that, it was over. Elsewhere at the festival there were circus acts, fire dancers, musicians, opera, and other theatre shows. But I was pleased to focus on the Fire Lion, in anticipation of good fortune and protection against evil spirts. May the next 10,000 years be so fine.
