{"id":28297,"date":"2018-12-14T22:34:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T14:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=28297"},"modified":"2026-03-15T20:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:30:37","slug":"12-days-in-taiwan-day-08-shifen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2018\/12\/14\/12-days-in-taiwan-day-08-shifen\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Days in Taiwan \u2013 Day 08 \u2013 Shifen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Day 08 actually goes like this: Taipei => Yehliu Geo Park => Shifen Waterfall => Shifen => Yin Yang Sea => Golden Waterfall => Jiufen. I figured that it would make more sense if I did separate notes on Shifen and Jiufen towns, though it means that the post sequence is slightly off-sync from the actual itinerary sequence.<\/p>\n

There’s a silver lining to the all-day rain we experienced in this region on Day 8. It at least created significant water flow to make the two waterfalls more impressive than say on a dry week. This was especially true for Shifen Waterfall<\/strong>, though again the rain made it so hard balancing an umbrella and the Sony A73 that I gave up altogether trying to manage the two: the umbrella came down, the Sony A73 stayed, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there’s no permanent damage to the body nor the Sony FE 24-105mm f4.0 lens! I did lose an eye-cup piece here though so will need to get a replacement when I’m back in Singapore. \/sad<\/p>\n

Some of the commentary online suggests walking from Shifen to the Waterfall, since it’s a doable 30-minute walk. Checo drove us there instead, though we also got lucky to find a free vehicle lot just when we got there. From the drop-off point, it’s another 7\u20138 minute walk across small markets with food, souvenirs, and knick-knacks, a suspension bridge, and a few flights of steep steps before you finally reach the two viewing spots to see the Waterfall.<\/p>\n

This particular waterfall is supposed to be pretty impressive, and it’s even been called a “Little Niagara”. I can see the resemblance having been to Niagara Falls<\/a>, but the rainy morning we checked it out and also the crowds around made it really hard to get any decent shots of it. I did try to do several dozen flowing-water type shots in handheld fashion, but I’m not pleased with the results. The water was murky, and there were winds about that created movement in the foliage on both sides of the river.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The suspension bridge leading to the waterfall is wide enough for several persons to walk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Slowed shot at 1\/8s. Check out the amount of optical blemishes: the lens filter was continually splashed by rain droplets that I gave up trying to wipe off before taking a shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Steep steps leading back up, but still doable for kids.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shifen Waterfall done, it was time for the first major highlight of the day: setting off a sky lantern in Shifen<\/strong>. There is a fairly large number of shops which are all offering the same service: you buy a lantern (you have your choice of single or multi-color, with the latter ones a little more expensive), write your wishes and hopes on its four faces, sign off your name on the face, and then you’d be assisted to send it skywards. We checked out a shop that Checo said is the premier and the first sky lantern establishment on this street, and chose a multi-colored lantern that cost NTD200\/SGD8.90. Ling and the two kids took turns to write on the four sides \u2014 as custom informs, it’s important that you write your name on your wishes, otherwise the heavenly spirits will not know to whom they should grant that wish haha.<\/p>\n

Interesting point to note too: the lanterns will eventually come back down to earth, but wouldn’t it create a lot of litter? Not so, according to Checo: apparently, each shop pays fees that are collectively used to get residents in the area to go collect them \u2014 and the payment for each lantern remainder collected is NTD5. Quite an incentive!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Check out the number of lanterns up in the sky!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The lanterns are launched skywards on the train track itself. Not to worry: it’s all quite safe. The train will approach the lantern square very slowly, and everyone will help each other out \u2014 i.e. yell “train coming!!!” LOL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The price list of our shop. The legend explains the meaning of each color.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Peter drew an airplane and a train on his side of the lantern haha.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Our store assistant helped us take pictures (don’t toss him a DSLR \u2014 just a smartphone!) and will instruct which pose to do for each side of the lantern.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Given the rain, I was honestly a little surprised ours would actually go up!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sky lantern activity was pretty fun, took about 20 minutes, and is well worth the fairly small expense of NTD150\/SGD6.68 to NTD200\/SGD8.90. The store assistant took pretty decent photos of us posing with the lantern, but you’d need to really get ready to take pictures when the lantern is launched. Set your camera on drive mode if you need to, as the lantern will ascend extremely quickly!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Shifen Old Street, where you send up your Sky Lanterns!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shifen visited, we gradually made our way to Jiufen next<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Day 08 actually goes like this: Taipei => Yehliu Geo Park => Shifen Waterfall => Shifen => Yin Yang Sea => Golden Waterfall => Jiufen. I figured that it would make more sense if I did separate notes on<\/p>\n

Read More 12 Days in Taiwan \u2013 Day 08 \u2013 Shifen<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[608,613,618],"class_list":["post-28297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-sony-fe-24-105mm-f4-0","tag-taiwan-2018","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blog-2018-taiwan-day-08-20181214_120627-Shifen-Lantern.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38560,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28297\/revisions\/38560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}