Zigong lanterns to light up heritage park
Updated: 2011-11-28 13:40
By Sun Xiaohang (China Daily Anhui Bureau)
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HEFEI－With 110-odd sets of Zigong lanterns on display, the first lantern show festival will start on Dec 18, the official opening day of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park located here in Anhui province.
The lantern show festival, claimed to be the largest one of its kind in China, will last for five months.
The park, which sits on the Wolong Mountain, is one of six cultural and industrial parks in Hefei City, provincial capital of east China's Anhui. It is believed the marriage between Zigong lanterns and China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park will make a win-win situation.
All the lanterns on display are made by craftsmen from Zigong City, Sichuan province. After coming to China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park on October 3, craftsmen have been busy making lanterns in the park.
"Now it is the countdown to the official opening of this park, we have to race against the clock to ensure the lantern-making project is completed as planned," said one of the lantern makers.
By then, visitors will feast their eyes on lanterns under various themes, including folklores as "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", historical stories like Three Kingdoms and cartoons like Kung Fu Panda.
One highlight of the festival will be a reproduction of the scene in "the Festival of Pure Brightness on the River", a well-known Chinese painting depicting the bustling city of Bianjing in the Song dynasty (960-1279) of China's history.
In the park of the Festival of Pure Brightness on the River, a 1.5-kilometer-long, ancient-style-house-flanked street is nearly finished.
"On the opening day, the street will be dotted with life-sized lanterns in the form of bridges, trees, horses and so on. People clad in ancient costume will walk to and fro. It is just like a time travel," said Mr. Han, art director of this sub-park.
Zigong lanterns have long been enjoying an international renown and lantern making has become a local industry in southwest China's Sichuan province.
"I've been in this industry for more than 10 years. In my hometown Zigong, many people live on it," said Liu Gang, who specializes in building the framework of lanterns.