"While Chinese New Year tends to get all the attention, one of the more subtle and beguiling celebratory days in the Chinese calendar is the annual Sky Lantern Festival. In a blaze of luminous glory that lasts from the 12th through the 15th of the Lunar New Year, 100,000 to 200,000 hot air balloons emblazon a full moonlit sky. Although the holiday is celebrated all across Asia, nowhere in the world is it more recognized than Pingxi, a remote mountain town an hour-long drive from Taipei."