Taiwan Travel with Children - Shifen by Train 十分天燈鐵道之旅

This has been on my bucket list - releasing sky lantern (放天燈)! So the first thing in our Taiwan itinerary was to visit Shifen (十分) to send our wishes to the sky!

We planned to release sky lantern, followed by visiting Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布). However, it was raining that day, so we dropped the idea of going to Shifen Waterfall. I guess it would not be enjoyable to carry our 2 backpacks (as we were travelling to Yilan after that) and to bring 2 children to walk 2 km from the station to the waterfall in the rain. Anyway, we had a glimpse of Shifen Waterfall on the train.

We took trains from Taipei to Shifen (Read the information of "How to Get from Taipei to Shifen" by Train at the end of this post). If you think that no one will visit such an "ulu" (remote) place on a weekday morning, you are wrong! The train was packed with locals and tourists! 

When we alighted at Shifen Station, the children were thrilled to see many sky lanterns flying up! The tiny dots are sky lanterns, not dirt on your screen!

There are many shops selling sky lantern along Shifen Old Street (十分老街), and their price is about the same - NT150 for same colour on 4 sides, NT200 for different colours on 4 sides. My tips to you is - walk all the way to the end of the street, as there are fewer people, so you will not be photobombed when you are releasing your sky lantern!

We bought our sky lantern from a shop called 阿媽的天燈. A staff of the shop commented that my standard of Chinese is quite good compared to some Singaporean visitors hehe!

The children also took turn to make a wish. Erm, this was more like a tiger mum's wish for them - 考試滿分 (score full marks for examinations).

No worries if you run out of ideas on what to write, this shop provides a list of good wishes phases for your reference! One good thing is that the staff takes photos and video for us, he told us how to position ourselves on the railway track, and told us to turn the sky lantern so that he took photos of us with 4 sides of the sky lantern. He also took video of us releasing the sky lantern. However, as the rain was getting heavier, the staff was a bit rush when he was taking photos for us, so not all 4 photos turned out nice.

It is a bird! It is UFO! No! It is our sky lantern!!

Other than releasing sky lantern, you can also purchase souvenir and have some food along Shifen Old Street.

The train station is also a nice place to take photos. 

Don't forget to stamp on your notebook!

We would love to explore the nearby area, however we had to give it a miss due to the rain. We took the train back to Ruifang, where we took another train to Yilan. 

The train was quite empty on our return trip, so we got to have "first-class" seat next to the train driver!

How to Get from Taipei to Shifen by Train

Step 1:

Take a train from Taipei Station (台北) to Ruifang Station (瑞芳). We took the fastest train (a.k.a. the most expensive type) Tze-Chiang Limited Express (自強號) with reserved seats, which took about 35 minutes. The cheaper type of train Local Train (區間車) would take 50+ minutes.

Step 2:

Take Pingxi Line (平溪線) from Ruifang Station to Shifen Station (十分), which takes about 35 minutes.

Important notes:

1. Take note of the schedule of Pingxi Line, as there is only one train per hour! So plan ahead!
2. If you are travelling to a few stations along Pingxi Line, then you may consider getting the one-day pass which is NT80 (as of December 2015).  For us, we didn't get the pass as we only visited one station, so each adult spent NT38 in total to get from Ruifang to Shifen and back to Ruifang. Children fare is half of adult fare.

Our Taiwan Travelogue 2017:

• Taiwan Family Travel 8D7N Free & Easy Itinerary (December 2017)
• 10 Tips for Planning a Trip to Taiwan with Children + Elderly Parents
• How to Get from Taipei台北 to Taichung台中
• Accommodation in Taichung: 53 Hotel 寶島53行館
• Accommodation in Taipei 台北: York Design Hotel
• Taipei 台北 – Shilin Night Market 士林夜市
• Taipei 台北 – Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂
• Taipei 台北 – Kao Chi @ Yong Kang Street 永康街高記
• Jiufen 九份
• Changhua 彰化 – Changhua Roundhouse
• Taichung 台中 – 玩One Pizza (DIY pizza buffet with indoor play area)
• Taichung 台中 – Taichung Second Market 台中第二市場
• Taichung 台中 – Miyahara 宮原眼科 & Fourth Credit Union 第四信用合作社
• Taichung 台中 – Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市
• Taichung 台中 – Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村
• Taichung 台中 – A Liang Mushroom 阿亮香菇園 and Master of Mushrooms Restaurant 菇神
• Taichung 台中 – Lavender Cottage 薰衣草森林
• Taichung 台中 – Chung-She Flower Garden 中社觀光花市
• Taichung 台中 – Gaomei Wetlands 高美濕地
• Nantou 南投 – Cingjing Farm Green Green Grassland 清境農場青青草原
• Nantou 南投 – Puli 埔里 – Guangxing Paper Mill 廣興紙寮, King Garden 元首館

Our Taiwan Travelogue 2015:

• Taiwan with Children 7D6N Free & Easy Itinerary and Accommodation (December 2015)
• 8 Tips for Planning a Trip to Taiwan with Children
• Taiwan Child-friendly Accommodations with Slides
• Free Gifts for Travellers @ Taiwan Visitors Association(Singapore Office)
• Shifen 十分 – Sky Lantern
• Yilan 宜蘭 – Child-friendly Accommodation with Slide自然捲北歐風格旅店
• Yilan 宜蘭 – Jimmy Square, Free Factory Tour, Themed Restaurants, Hot Spring
• Miaoli 苗栗 – Flying Cow Ranch 飛牛牧場
• Miaoli 苗栗 – Strawberry farm, Railway Museum, High Speed Rail
• Taipei 台北– Rilakkuma Cafe 拉拉熊咖啡廳
• Taipei 台北– BabyBoss 職業體驗任意城
• Taipei 台北– Raohe Street Night Market 饒河街觀光夜市
• Download our printable Taiwan 7D6N Free & Easy Itinerary

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