After hiking the Sandiaoling waterfall trail, we decided to stop at Shifen on our way back to Taipei. One of the things on my Taiwan bucket-list was releasing a paper lantern.

We got off the train in Shifen just after sunset and walked through the town which is built along the old train tracks. We saw lots of couples and friends writing their wishes on the lanterns and releasing them. The glowing light illuminated their captivated faces as they held the lanterns up.

We found a store where we could paint on our own lantern and write out our wishes. Tiana got to work while I mostly photographed an extremely old dog. A man was feeding him some sort of yogurt substance. The dog seemed to be in pain and have joint problems, but he was so happy to eat and rolled around afterwards. I decorated one side of the lantern.

We stood in the middle of the tracks feeling the warmth of the flame in our lantern and slowly released it into the sky. We watched the flame flicker above us and carry the lantern along with our wishes up into the night sky. Soon it was nothing more than a glowing dot. And then it was gone.