2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will begin on February 14

 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will begin on February 14

The 15th New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will begin with three huge night events on February 14, 17 and 24. Mayor Eric Chu along with city council Yan Shi-xiong had announced the countdown for lantern festival at City Plaza on January 15.

The Sky Lantern Festival is not only one of the most representative events in Taiwan, but also named one of the 52 things to do in 2013 by CNN, and Chu welcomed citizens to participate in this event during Lunar New Year.

The 2013 New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will begin at Jing Tong Elementary School on February 14, then at Pingxi Junior High School on February 17 and Shifen Sky Lantern Square on February 24. It was predicted that over 4,600 lanterns would be launched to the sky this year.

The first sky lantern event will be held on February 14 the Valentine""s Day, the time which the 120 limited sky lanterns will be provided for the couples to launch, and the limited lanterns will be open for registration at 12pm on January 16. For more detail on the Valentine""s Day Sky Lantern Festival, please visit the website http://tour.ntpc.gov.tw/2013skylantern/ for more information.

The second event is about filling the lanterns with dreams. Citizens can collect the colorful paper from six different places before January 25, including Jing Tong Minor Center, Qiao Men Bakery, Pingxi Gallery, Jing Tong Railway Story House, Shifen Visitor Center and Shifen Railway Gallery. In addition, the sky lantern master will help turn the lanterns into mosaics ones by pasting the colorful paper collected by the citizens into the shape of ""I Love TW"". On February 17, citizens can finally launch the lanterns into the sky.

The final sky lantern event will be on February 24, and this day is also known as the Traditional Lantern Festival. During that day, the Shifen Sky Lantern Square will prepare 2,000 sky lanterns for the citizens to lighten the sky of Pingxi.

In addition, the city government had call on the people to take the public transportations during the event.