From the Wu Temple send-off to the main towers at Yanshui Junior High
Related guide: Yanshui Beehive Fireworks 2027
The palanquin leaves the Yanshui Wu Temple on the night before Lantern Festival. In 2026 that was 19:00 on 2 March; the next day, Lantern Festival, the procession set out along several routes at 18:30, with each route scheduled to finish between 2:00 and 4:00 on 4 March. The dates follow the lunar calendar: Lantern Festival 2027 is 20 February, so expect the procession the evening before and the main towers on Lantern Festival night.
The custom is said to go back more than a century to a cholera epidemic, when residents set off firecrackers to invite Guan Gong, the deity of the Wu Temple, to tour the town and drive out the disease, and it has been repeated every Lantern Festival since.
A beehive tower is a rack packed with bottle rockets. It is lit as the palanquin passes, and the rockets fly flat into the people around it. In 2026 there were more than 200 towers of all sizes, about 10 percent more than the year before, holding around 200,000 rockets in all. The three main towers fired together at Yanshui Junior High School on Lantern Festival night were each 40 feet long.
The full guide to this festival
Yanshui Beehive Fireworks 2027: est. 19–20 February, full protective gear required
Full guide: dates, getting there and what you can book →
Tickets and transport you can book
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Taiwan-wide
Taiwan High Speed Rail tickets with attraction add-ons
Yanshui is close to both HSR Chiayi and HSR Tainan; buy rail plus attractions together.
See plansTainan
Tainan day tour: Chimei Museum, Sicao Green Tunnel, Anping Fort
A next-day Tainan city add-on after the fireworks: Chimei, Sicao and Anping; departs Kaohsiung.
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