Lishan Light Art Festival: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Heping)

A village on a ridge, lit for a month

Lishan is a ridge village, not a city. Its main street follows the curve of Provincial Highway 8, the Central Cross-Island Highway. Orchards drop away on both slopes, and the 1960s palace-style Lishan Guesthouse looks over the valley.

For about a month each winter the Lishan Scenic Area hosts a light art festival. Installations light up a place that normally goes very dark and very quiet once the fruit trucks have left. The setting is the draw: light art set against mountain silhouettes and terraced orchards, far from any city glow.

Dates for the 2026–27 edition

The festival takes place from December 5, 2026 to January 3, 2027. That window covers Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and it ends on the first weekend of January.

Because it lasts a full month, nobody has to aim for one night. Weekends and the New Year holiday are when Taiwanese domestic travellers usually come up the mountain. Midweek nights in December tend to suit people who want the village to themselves.

Tickets and admission

The facts behind this guide do not include a ticket price, a booking platform or a list of installations. Admission terms are set by the festival organiser, and the organiser’s own announcements are where they are published.

Some background helps here. Lishan belongs to the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area, which is run by Taiwan’s tourism authority. This guide doesn’t claim that body runs the festival. Its visitor centres are still the usual place for practical information about the area.

Getting up the mountain

There are three ways up, and none of them is quick. The western stretch of Highway 8 beyond Guguan has been restricted since the 1999 Jiji earthquake. That closure shapes every route in:

• From Taichung by car: most drivers go via Puli and Highway 14A over Wuling Pass near Hehuanshan. They then drop to Dayuling and follow Highway 8 to Lishan.
• From Yilan: Highway 7A climbs past Wuling Farm and joins Highway 8 at Lishan.
• From Hualien: the eastern Highway 8 runs up through Taroko Gorge. Landslides and earthquake damage close it often, so its status matters more than on the other routes.
• By bus: regional buses reach Lishan from Taichung, typically through Puli, and from Yilan. Services are few, and an EasyCard works on most of them.

Plan for a long day on mountain roads. A winding climb of several hours is normal from either Taichung or Yilan.

The 5pm mountain dark

In December the sun sets around 5pm, and it drops behind the ridges sooner than that. The festival’s whole season falls in the darkest weeks of the year. You get long evenings of lit installations, and a village that goes still soon after dinner.

At this altitude December nights often fall close to freezing. Frost on the orchards is common by morning. Wuling Pass, on the main Taichung route, sometimes gets snow and ice, and when it does the authorities control traffic and may require snow chains.

What visitors usually wear:

• A down jacket over a fleece layer
• A hat and gloves for standing still outdoors
• Shoes with grip, because paths between viewpoints slope and can be damp

Staying over the way festival-goers do

The lights only work after dark, and the last buses leave long before late evening. So most attendees sleep in Lishan rather than doing a day trip. There aren’t many rooms in the village, which is why festival weekends are usually reserved weeks out.

The main options:

• Guesthouses on and just off the main street. These are mostly small, family-run places.
• Lishan Guesthouse, the large hotel in the old palace-style building.
• Fushoushan Farm, a short drive uphill, which has its own lodging and campsite.
• Wuling Farm, roughly an hour along Highway 7A, with cabins and a hotel.

Small shops and fruit stalls in mountain villages generally take cash first. Larger hotels usually take cards. Lishan has no real night market, so people tend to eat dinner before the evening walk. After that a hot drink is the usual way to warm up.

When a tea shop pours you a free tasting, the custom is to sip it slowly and talk about the tea. It’s polite to buy a small bag if you liked it, though nobody expects you to.

Fruit, tea and the farms nearby

Lishan made its name on fruit. It is one of the best-known growing areas in Taiwan for high-mountain apples and pears, and stalls along the main road sell local produce through the cooler months. It’s also one of the classic names in high-mountain oolong. Tea grown at this height is sold right in the village.

Daylight hours give you time for the sights nearby:

• Fushoushan Farm: orchards, Tianchi (Heavenly Lake) and an old lodge once used by Chiang Kai-shek, all above the village
• Wuling Farm: a long valley along Highway 7A, home to the protected Formosan landlocked salmon
• Hehuanshan: high peaks and alpine meadow beside Highway 14A, an easy stop on the drive from Taichung

A common pattern is to drive up in daylight and spend the afternoon at Fushoushan. Then you stay for the lights and head down the next morning.