Shanghai International Lantern Festival

Have you ever seen an amazing lantern display? If not, come to visit Shanghai in China before mid-October. Now in Shanghai, it is hosting the 2012 Shanghai International Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival starts from 5^th September to 14^th October, lasting for 40 days in total at Lu Xun Park, Hongkou District. During this festival, tourists can visit many popular Shanghai tourist attractions as well as seeing the incredible lantern display as the most enjoyable and memorable things to do in Shanghai.

Actually, the same grand lantern display was held 20 years ago in Shanghai’s Lu Xun Park. Back then 20 years ago, Zigong Lantern Display had shocked Shanghai, with a total number of 2 million lantern viewers, creating a record then. Thus visiting the lantern festival had become one of the best things to do in Shanghai. Today, the Zigong colorful lanterns which was recruited in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List has again come to Shanghai to present a grand, rich, technological and colorful lantern display art to share. For more information about Shanghai tourist attractions, please look at WindhorseTour’s Beijing and Shanghai Sightseeing Tour.

The theme is “Harmony, Blending, Development”, and the Lantern Festival aims at creating “New Achievements of Scientific Development, New Impression of Urban Construction, New Presentation of the Culture and Creation”, building a new international and cultural metropolis of Shanghai, thus visiting its attractions is one of the best things to do in Shanghai. You can go shopping at Nanjing Road, wander in Yuyuan Garden, lean on the bridge to see the magnificent Huangpu River and Bund, and they are all famous and popular Shanghai tourist attractions. To know more information, please look at WindhorseTour’s Ancient China Tour with Capitals Exploration.

This time, the 52 groups of giant lanterns are all used new ingenious assembly workmanship, new introductions of sound, light, electricity and other high-tech performance practices. The modern LED and other energy-saving light source, gives the Lantern Festival a strong performance, reflecting a clear sense of times. The design and the material of Lanterns are all chosen with green, environment-friendly and energy-saving materials. This also gives a new image to modern Shanghai, pursuing a combination of technologies and Chinese traditional cultures. Click to the link to see the latest video!

The Lantern display located in Lu Xun Park, which is one of the Shanghai tourist attractions, is divided into three sections, muilt-zone design highlighting the cultural connotations of Shanghai, also showing its cultural diversity and inclusive.

Section 1 – International Display Zone

This section is set and based on the 2012 London Olympics, Korean Drums, the Eiffel Tower and the big Buddha as well as other typical symbols in abroad, giving tourists’ chances to see these international sights. Seeing these great international collections in just one place is one of the attractive things to do in Shanghai.

Section 2 – China Display Zone

With the features of the Shenzhou No. 9 manned spacecraft, the Great Wall, the Oriental Giant Dragon and Charming Shanghai, the Lantern Festival shows the China’s unique scenery and the charming style of Shanghai to the fullest.

Section 3 – Interaction Display Zone

This section is set for children. With amusement parks and interactive games, children can participate in the lantern groups; which even can make your children feel the classical Chinese traditional stories and scenes.

The most engaging highlight of the festival is to see “The Big Oriental Porcelain Dragon”, which is more than 200 m. (656 ft.) long and weighs 50 tons (50,000 kg.). Meanwhile, the big oriental porcelain dragon will also challenge the Guinness Book of World Records. So in this cool autumn, come to Shanghai’s Lu Xun Park and see the legendary big monster yourself! By the way, don’t forget take this opportunity to visit other amazing Shanghai tourist attractions.