Pingxi in New Taipei CIty has become one of Taiwan''s top 10 tourist sites for independent travelers for the first time. It''s known for the Pingxi lantern festival, but more visitors mean trains serving the town are increasingly crowded. The Pingxi Branch Line has come a long way since 30 years ago when it was facing a shutdown. But thanks to some clever marketing by locals, the area has been reborn as an international tourist destination. Just how did they pull it off? Unlike any other train station in Taiwan, Shifen Station on the Pingxi Branch Line in New Taipei still uses antique signaling systems from the Japanese colonial era, rather than modern electronic train controls. The sight of humans dispatching trains at the station attracts plenty of railroad fans from at home and abroad.Liu Li-weiShifen Station Deputy StationmasterActually a lot of tour groups from Japan come to see our signaling block system and our semaphore signals because they are from the Japanese era. Lots of railroad fans will make a pilgrimage here just to see this system.These two Japanese travelers eagerly survey the scene, having come all the way to Pingxi to launch sky lanterns. Sky lantern sellers in the town offer all kinds of packages, with each color of lantern corresponding to a certain type of wish, whether for love, prosperity, or health. Just as these tourists are enjoying the charm of launching sky lanterns, their ears are greeted by a shrill whistle warning that a train is about to come. There’s about one departure per hour on the Pingxi Branch Line, which in many places forces trains to pass slowly between private houses and buildings close on both sides. Some get a real kick out of being able to stand right next to the passing trains.Risa NoichiJapanese TouristThere’s not many places in Japan where you can look at the train up close. I think it’s wonderful. It’s a totally new experience for me.Filipino TouristIt was actually new for me. I wasn’t this was ganna be on the railway. Actually when the train arrived, I was like “oh!”Though Pingxi District has the smallest population of any district in New Taipei, it has successfully managed to transform itself into an international tourist destination based on its famous sky lanterns and railroad. The whole length of Shifen Old Street bubbles with activity, as tourists write on their lanterns in English, Korean, and many other languages. It’s a stark contrast from 30 years ago, when the Pingxi Branch Line was so infrequently used that authorities were close to doing away with it.The final stop on the Pingxi Line is Jingtong Station, where the mottled wall of an old ore washing plant right next to the platform serves as a reminder of the mines that flourished here during the Japanese colonial period. By the 1980s, though, the coal industry was in terminal decline, and interest in the station dropped off.Li Wen-chuanJingtong Cultural HistorianIn the beginning, the Pingxi Line didn’t see any tourists, who only really went to Shifen Waterfall. Even on the weekends before there was any five-day work week, when the train arrived here on Sunday there would only be about three people onboard. As a cultural historian of Jingtong, Li Wen-chuan encouraged his fellow townspeople at that time to fight to preserve the Pingxi Line, which in the end was saved from demolition. But Li also realized that if the branch line were to maintain its lease on life, passenger loads would have to be increased significantly. So he decided to use the area’s history as a marketing tool.Li Wen-chuanJingtong Cultural HistorianBefore, there used to be a fruit ice shop on the left side of the tracks, and a young railroad worker inspecting the tracks used to peek over a wall at the pretty woman who worked in the shop. Later on, they became a couple!Li’s strategy seems to be working, given the many young couples who come to the area around Jingtong Station to write their wishes on bamboo tubes before hanging them on this wall. It’s become one of the most romantic sights along the Pingxi Line.It’s not just Shifen and Jingtong Stations that are driving tourism on the Pingxi Line. Each station on the line has its own unique qualities that together have made it the most profitable branch line in the whole Taiwan Railways network.Hsu Min-chiehTRA Transportation DepartmentThe Pingxi Line averages 1.59 million passengers per year, and brings in annual revenues of more than NT$40 million. Having been left behind by the decline of the coal industry, theseformerly silent mountain towns have been reborn as international tourist destinations, thanks to an effective marketing approach going back to the area’s history. The Pingxi Branch Line looks set to continue bringing tourists from far and wide to experience the region’s unique blend of nostalgia and slow living.
