2011 Lantern Festival Qinhuai, China

Before the Spring Festival, hundreds of beautiful lanterns sets were lighted in Wengcheng of Zhonghua Gate, Nanjing. The Qinhuai River set off by the lights seemed more attractive at night. 2011 Lantern Festival Qinhuai, China opened here.

2011 Lantern Festival Qinhuai, China is held from January 31st to February 20th (December 28th-January 18th on lunar calendar). This year, layout of the lantern festival covers water, land and air for the first time. Apart from inner Qinhuai River, Bailuzhou Park and Confucius Temple, lanterns are also displayed along the 3.5km Ming Dynasty City Wall from Wengcheng, Zhonghua Gate to Dongshuiguan. At the opening ceremony, brilliant lanterns decorated the 600-year-old Ming City Wall in a magnificent way. A large scale lighting and firework show called Happy Get-together was performed after.

Qinhuai Lantern Festival has been held for 24 times. It is a cultural name card of Nanjing and Jiangsu. 200 sets of big lanterns and totally 400,000 lanterns will be displayed or decorate 6 areas, namely Zhonghua Gate Castle, Ming Dynasty City Wall, Bailuzhou Park, Qinhuai River, Hall of Great Accomplishment and Lantern Market. Lantern festival organizations in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and USA were invited to attend. Sub-festival was held in Yancheng, Changzhou. Lantern craftsman of Nanjing were dispatched to attend tourism promotion activity during Spring River Gala in Singapore.