Photos of the Taiwan Lantern Festival
The national lantern festival is held a different city each year. This time it was in Taoyuan…

Taoyuan is best-known for its airport, Taipei–Taoyuan International, which served 45 million passengers in 2024.
For most foreign tourists, that’s the only reason to visit the city.
Until last weekend, it was true for me too (apart from that one time I stopped in Taoyuan for lunch and was told I have “beautiful blue eyes like glass balls”).
Things were calm when I arrived on Friday. But by the weekend, the Taoyuan Metro was overwhelmed as I—along with 2.6 million other people—tried to reach the festival grounds. The station nearest to the main stage served over 1 million passengers on Saturday, whereas it usually serves fewer than 1 million in an entire year.
Riding the MRT was an exercise in forced intimacy: at one stage, it was so crowded I literally could not move my arm. But even if I could’ve, there weren’t enough grab-handles anyway—so whenever the train abruptly changed speed, everyone was pushed forwards or back by a mass of people on all sides. I feared we were one jolt away from crushing or being crushed.
But I survived. So, on to the festival…
Lanterns are created by family or social groups, students, or workplaces. It’s an honor to be selected for display.
Common themes included Year of the Snake, folk legends, and Taoyuan International Airport. (Curiously though, no one was celebrating the Taoyuan Metro…)
Some of the 400 lanterns were spectacular.
Here are some pics:







































