Pingxi Lantern Festival dazzles crowds

The Pingxi Lantern Festival is one of the most colorful Chinese New Year celebrations in Taiwan. This annual event is held to celebrate the New Year by releasing a mass amount of sky lanterns, or Kongming lanterns, which were invented by Zhuge Liang.

Every year, the town of Pingxi, a small mountain village east of Taipei, comes alive as tourists flock there to see this centuries-old Chinese invention. Once used as an ancient communications tool for warfare, sky lanterns have become a symbol of peace and good tidings for the New Year.

People usually write their wishes on the lanterns, because it is believed that it's a way to pass on your wishes to the gods above as the lanterns fly into the sky.

First held in 1999, the Pingxi Lantern Festival has become a major tourist attraction in Taiwan. It draws thousands of tourists both from Taiwan and abroad.