Taiwan Lantern Festival 2025 in Taoyuan Guide + Photos

The 2025 Taiwan Lantern festival returns for its 36th year, heading to Taoyuan in February 2025.

After a successful and record breaking Taiwan Lantern Festival last year in Tain a n which attracted over 15 million people, this year’s Taoyuan 2025 Taiwan Lantern Festival is set to be bigger and better than ever before.

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The national Taiwan Lantern Festival takes place from 12 to 23 February 2025 next to Taoyuan High Speed Rail (HSR) station, which can be easily reached from Taipei in just 20 minutes.

Better still, the Taiwan Lantern Festival is free to visit and one of the best events in February 2025, taking place just after the Lunar New Year in Taiwan.

We were lucky enough to visit the last Taiwan Lantern Festival in Tainan (2024) and the huge illuminations and large-scale light displays were magical. We can’t wait to return to see the 2025 Taoyuan Taiwan Lantern Festival in person in February (we’ll update this blog with new photos).

Please note the Taiwan Lantern Festival 2025 is the national lantern festival of Taiwan and very different from the much smaller Taipei Lantern Festival 2025 – this is held 2 February 2025 to 14 February 2025 in Ximending.

If you want to go to the 2025 Taoyuan Taiwan Lantern Festival, or see our pictures of the event from Tainan in 2024, here is our guide to visiting.

You might also like – Our 1 day Taipei highlights itinerary or our 3 day best of Taipei itinerary

Taiwan checklist

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For booking tours, transfers and SIM cards we recommend Get Your Guide, Viator, KK Day or Klook.

Table of Contents

Taiwan Lantern Festival dates 2025 (Taoyuan)

Celebrated after Lunar New Year, the Taiwan Lantern Festival runs from 12 to 23 February 2025 – no tickets or admission fee is required. A special opening ceremony planned on 12 February 2025.

The Taiwan Lantern Festival usually lights up nightly from mid afternoon and runs until late in the evening.

There will also be a 2025 ‘Lights Playground’ event taking place from 7 February to 24 February 2025 nearby at Taoyuan Sports Park Station A19.

You might like – our guide to the best January 2025 Taipei and Taiwan events or our pick of February 2025 best Taiwan events

How to get to the Taoyuan Taiwan Lantern Festival 2025

The Taiwan Lantern Festival 2025 takes place in Taoyuan at the ‘Main Lantern Exhibition Area’ by A18 Taoyuan HSR Station (HSR stands for high speed rail).

This is a great location and easy to reach from Taipei on the high speed rail. The journey from Taipei Main Station to the Taiwan Lantern Festival 2025 in Taoyuan takes just over 20 minutes on the High Speed Train, plus a short walk at the end to the outdoor exhibition area where the lanterns are.

High speed rail fares from Taipei to Taoyuan usually cost around NT$160 one way (around £4 or $5 USD).

Please note you cannot use an EasyCard to pay for your HSR train tickets in Taiwan (which is a shame as they have so many cool EasyCard designs).

Check out discounted Taiwan High Speed Rail tickets for foreigners only on KK Day and Klook.

Taiwan High Speed Rail train in lantern form! Taiwan Lantern Festival — *Taiwan High Speed Rail train in lantern form!*

You might like – 15 best day trips from Taipei including Wulai, Beitou, Keelung, Jiufen and Tamsui

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Taiwan Lantern Festival 2025 – what to expect

Launching 12 February 2025 in Taoyuan, the Taiwan Lantern Festival welcomes millions of visitors each year from all over Taiwan and overseas tourists. It is one of the biggest lantern festivals in the world, which usually occurs just after the Lunar New Year.

The theme for the 2026 Taiwan Lantern Festival is “Lights Linking a Thousand Ponds Across Taoyuan” so expect lots of reflective installations and immersive water light scenes.

Last year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival in Tainan attracted over 7 million guests and we were lucky enough to visit.

We can hand on heart say this is one of Taiwan’s best events and we will be returning to the 2025 Taiwan Lantern Festival as we loved it so much.

The Taoyuan lantern festival will have lanterns big and small plus huge attractions like ferris wheels, fairground rides and even augmented reality. At last year’s festival, you could download an app and see the festival come to life with digital characters.

Many of Taiwan’s other cities and regions will be installing their own lanterns – the great thing about this Taiwan event is that it is the national Taiwan Lantern Festival and it changes its location every year, so all cities get a chance to host it.

You might like – Our guide to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan plus how to get there by public transport

We love big lanterns

Based on our experiences at last year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival, lanterns of all shapes and sizes will be appearing featuring all your favorite cartoon characters plus historical displays.

Last year, we spotted everyone from Doraemon to Super Mario (although the latter lantern did look a little rude to us – although that could just be our imagination running wild).

The famous Formosa bear, Oh Bear, also features heavily amongst the lantern displays, as the annual Taipei Lantern Festival is organised by Taiwan Tourism.

Another fantastic thing about the lantern festivals is that whilst many of the displays are done by professionals and big corporations or tourist boards (likely costing a lot of money), local community and school groups are also encouraged to create lanterns to go on display.

You might like – Top things to in Taichung >

Other things to do

At last year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival, there were also huge numbers of fairground rides, immersive installations plus playgrounds for children to enjoy.

There are live music and dance groups who have curated performance pieces to coincide with the lantern festival theme of ‘Lights Linking a Thousand Ponds Across Taoyuan”.

As well as static lanterns, there is usually a light show that is repeated at regular intervals across the evening.

A large number of Taiwanese food trucks and food kiosks will be at the festival, akin to a Taiwan night market – from stinky tofu to steamed buns, you won’t go hungry!

The nearby ‘Lights Playground’ runs from 7 February to 24 February 2025 nearby at Taoyuan Sports Park Station A19 and is free admission too.

You might like – Things to do in Taipei at night guide >

What the Taiwan National Lantern Festival isn’t

One thing to mention – we run a Taiwan Travel Tips (TTT) Facebook group and a few people seem to get this confused with a lantern release (like the Pingxi Lantern Festival).

If you want to release an actual lantern, read on for where you can do this…

You might like – Our guide to the Taiwan Receipt Lottery, which travellers can enter for ‘free’ with any convenience store purchase >

Other Taiwan Lantern Festival events in 2025

Taiwan Lantern Festival isn’t the only Taiwan lantern event in February 2025 or after Lunar New Year:

Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival & Mass Release 2025

We love exploring the Pingxi, especially Shifen waterfall and Houtong Cat Village.

Every year, a mass lantern release takes place along the Pingxi line (usually in Shifen at the Shifen Lantern Release Square or Pingxi Junior High School).

The 2025 Pingxi Lantern Festival and mass lantern release dates are confirmed as Saturday 8 February 2025 (at Pingxi Junior School) and Wednesday 12 February (at Shifen Square, near Shifen Wat e rfall.)

Here at the Pingxi Lantern Festival 2025, thousands of lanterns are released across both nights and the whole Pingxi sky lights up in unison. You can write messages of good luck, prosperity and wishes on your lanterns before watching them whoosh into the sky.

Book your 2025 Pingxi Lantern festival tickets with KK Day here >

December 2024 update – there is very limited KK Day availability and one of the dates has already sold out. More tickets may be released.

Please also note you can release lanterns on the Pingxi railway line along Shifen Old Street every day of the year but it is not a mass release and it does not take place at night.

Check out our guide to the Pingxi Line and its lanterns here >

Book your day-time Shifen Old Street lantern release with KK Day and Klook (over 10k booked).

You might like – Our guide to more major Taiwan events in February 2025 >

Taipei Lantern Festival 2025 – 2 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

Much smaller than the national lantern festival, Taipei’s own version is celebrated after Lunar New Year and runs from 2 February 2025 until 16 February 2025 – no tickets or admission is required.

The Taipei Lantern Festival usually lights up nightly from dusk and runs until the early hours – many of the lantern displays get turned off around midnight.

A short walk from both the Beimen and Ximen MRT Stations, the Taipei Lantern festival 2025 runs from outside Beimen MRT Station all the way to Nishi Honganji Temple in Ximending, Zhongzheng District, along Zhonghua Road.

Read our full guide to the Taipei Lantern Festival 2025 here >

Other small lantern festivals in Taiwan are usually held in bigger cities like Hualien and Taichung.

You might like – Our guide to Taipei’s biggest Lunar New Year market on Dihua Street >