Our agenda for the second half of the day was Shifen. Famous for its wishing lanterns (among other things), one has to visit Shifen after coming from Jiufen.

Shifen

The sight of the crowd already discouraged me because despite the long train ride, I did not feel well-rested from all the walking we did in Jiufen. So, I opted to stay and wait for my friends in a cafe right near the station. While they went to fly a lantern, I enjoyed my coffee and people-watched.

I realized the lanterns don’t fly too far since a lot of them fell near the station. Does this mean these are the wishes that don’t get to come true? Haha. Kidding aside, it’s fun for the photos, but given the short flying duration, it may not be that worth it?

We were very tired and exhausted after arriving from our day trip to the countryside. So, we decided on getting a quick dinner at nearby Ximending.

For dinner, we picked Taiwan’s famous fried chicken – Hot Star! The queue was long but we were willing to wait! It was worth it, though. I got the XL and I was stuffed just by eating this alone.

Ximending is kind of like the night life center for Taipei, at least for tourists! There are shops and food stalls everywhere.

It was a tiring day, so we decided to call it an early night. I bought beer from a convenience store along the way to the hotel and drank it in the room until I fell asleep! Tomorrow will be another long day!