Guides · Wed 28 Oct 2026
Christmasland in New Taipei City 2026: six weeks of lights in Banqiao
Christmasland fills Banqiao's civic plazas from Friday 13 November to Sunday 27 December 2026: projection mapping on City Hall, light zones, markets and weekend concerts, all free to walk through. The dates that matter, the calmest nights to go, and the German Christmas Market weekend inside the season.
The short answer: Christmasland in New Taipei City 2026 runs from Friday 13 November to Sunday 27 December 2026, 45 days, across New Taipei City Civic Plaza, Banqiao Station Square and the surrounding plazas in Banqiao. The Tourism Administration lists the run as confirmed. Entry to the plazas is free, and the shape of the season is projection mapping on the City Hall building, themed light zones, markets and weekend concerts. One honest qualification: the detailed weekend concert line up is the city's to publish as the season opens, so plan around the lights themselves, and treat any particular act as a bonus until the city programme lands.
What fills the plazas
Christmasland is an outdoor season spread across public space, not a show inside a venue. Civic Plaza, in front of New Taipei City Hall, is the centre of it, with the projection mapping show played on the City Hall facade and the main installations around it. Banqiao Station Square and the neighbouring plazas carry further light zones, and markets and stalls fill in the edges. Because there is no gate and no ticket, the visit shapes itself: arrive after dark, walk the zones at your own pace, eat from the stalls, and leave when you have had enough light. The weather is part of the programme in a way it never is indoors, and a clear, cool evening is the version to aim for.
When to go
The season is busiest on weekend evenings, and that single fact decides most good plans. A weekday evening in late November is the calmest way to see the same lights: the installations are up from opening night, the crowds are thinner, and the plazas are easier to walk with children. Weekends build through December, and the closing stretch runs over Christmas itself, Friday 25 to Sunday 27 December, which is also the final chance to go. If you are travelling in from outside the Taipei area for one night only, a Friday is the workable compromise, busy enough to feel like an occasion and short of the Saturday peak. Rain does not cancel an outdoor light season, but it does thin it, and a wet weekday can be quieter still.
The German Christmas Market weekend
One weekend inside the season has its own anchor. Our calendar carries the German Christmas Market 2026, organised by the German Trade Office Taipei, at Christmasland in Banqiao from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December, the first leg of a three weekend tour. The market's stalls sell German sausages, stollen, mulled wine and Christmas gifts, and entry is free, with food and gifts paid as you go. The tour then moves to Taipei Expo Park from 11 to 13 December and Taoyuan Arts Plaza from 18 to 20 December, so the Banqiao weekend is the one that pairs the market with the full Christmasland ground.
Getting there, and where to sleep
Banqiao does the transport work for you. The plazas sit by Banqiao station, which has its own high speed rail and metro services, and central Taipei is a short ride east, so the evening works as a trip out from a Taipei hotel as easily as it works from Banqiao itself. Driving into Banqiao on a weekend evening in December is the version to avoid: the crowds that make the season are all arriving at the same plazas, and the train puts you at the edge of them. On where to sleep, our hotels page puts it plainly: Banqiao is the working base, with Christmasland on its doorstep, while a Taipei base trades a short metro ride for the capital's wider choice of hotels and evenings. Either way, book December weekends early, because the same nights fill both districts.
The season on one page
| Night | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Opening night | Friday 13 November 2026 | First night of the run; the full ground is lit from opening |
| German Christmas Market at Christmasland | Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December 2026 | Free entry; stalls sell food, drink and gifts |
| Christmas weekend and closing night | Friday 25 to Sunday 27 December 2026 | The final three nights of the season, and among the busiest |
More winter listings are under illumination and light festivals, and the New Taipei city guide covers what else is on across the river while you are based there.
Sources: the Tourism Administration's event listing for Christmasland in New Taipei City 2026, for the dates of 13 November to 27 December 2026, the Civic Plaza and Banqiao Station Square venues, the projection mapping, markets and weekend concerts, and free entry; the German Trade Office Taipei (AHK) events listing, for the German Christmas Market's Banqiao, Taipei Expo Park and Taoyuan legs and dates. Checked 27 October 2026. The detailed 2026 concert line up had not been published in the sources above at the time of checking.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.