When speaking of Chinese lanterns, most people think of the large, circular, red variety made of silk that hangs under roofs and portals on festive occasions, such as Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival, as well as the upcoming Mid-Autumn Day.

But Chinese lantern culture encompasses more than just this single style. Similar to the growing economy, lantern-making techniques have undergone a similar diversification as evidenced by the examples on show at the International Lantern Festival currently ongoing in Lu Xun Park in Hongkou district.

Some 52 large lanterns are on display offering the chance to enjoy this unique aspect of Chinese culture as interpreted by craftsmen in the art from Zigong, Sichuan Province, a city that has achieved nationwide fame for three "treasures": salt, dinosaur fossils, and of course, colored lanterns.

Traditional images

The lantern festival consists of three main sections: the Chinese Section (30 lanterns), the International Section (12 lanterns) and the Interactive Section (10 lanterns). The Chinese Section contains impressively outsize lanterns in shapes that represent many important images in Chinese culture, such as Buddhas, pandas, dragons, phoenixes and the faces of Peking Opera characters.

One of the most attractive lanterns in this section is a 200-meter-long ceramic-decorated dragon lantern that features more than 100,000 pieces of blue-and-white porcelain wares, including plates, bowls and spoons, all made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, known as "the capital of porcelain" in China.

"The idea was inspired by a dragon sculpture I saw in Shenzhen in 2000, and I thought it would be wonderful to create it with blue-and-white porcelain," said Liu Shengyang, the board manager of the Zigong-based Hong Yang Color Lantern Culture Company, which designed and built all the lanterns for the festival. Over the past few years, lanterns designed by the company have been shown all around the world, and have won many plaudits for the company.

"Most of our lanterns are very large, cover tens of square meters in size and can be as tall as 20 meters high," Liu told the Global Times.

The materials used for the lanterns are also highly varied. Visitors can see an elephant-shaped lantern which is made from used bottles of penicillin collected from hospitals. There is also a giant phoenix lantern made from silkworm cocoons.

"Overseas" attractions

The festival is also showcasing 12 lanterns in the shape of famous overseas tourist attractions or cultural figures. Each lantern represents a separate foreign country such as the Eiffel Tower for France, a drum performance for South Korea, and mermaids to represent Danish fairy tales.

In the Interactive Section, children can take a ride on a miniature train around lanterns created in the shapes of cartoon figures such as Pleasant Sheep and Big Big Wolf.

A 30-meter-long walkway decorated with red lanterns on either side is also another highlight of the festival. Hundreds of paper strips printed with Chinese puzzles are hung overhead. Visitors who can solve any of the puzzles will receive a prize from the festival organizers.

Date: Until October 14, 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm

Venue: Lu Xun Park 鲁迅公园

Address: 280 Tian'ai Road 甜爱路280号

Tickets: 50 yuan ($7.90) for nights from every Monday to Thursday(except National Day holiday from September 30 to October 7), 70 yuan for nights from every Friday to Sunday (except National Day holiday), and 90 yuan for nights during National Day holiday

Call 962-388 for details

Make your own lantern

Fancy trying to make your own lantern? Liu Xiaofeng, manager of the retro toy store Ru-Wa in Jing'an Villas is offering Global Times readers some tips on how to create a DIY traditional square paper lantern. The store offers a package of materials (32 yuan) for making such lanterns, which includes 14 dry sorghum stems, five pieces of rice paper, a tube of glue, 10 short bamboo sticks, 12 long bamboo sticks, a candle, a nail and a roll of cotton string, all of which is more than  enough to build an intricate Chinese lantern.

Method:

Use the short bamboo stick as joints to connect the sorghum stems at right angles in order to form the cubic frame of the square lantern. For this step, you can push the nail half way into the sorghum stems to prepare the holes where you will insert the bamboo sticks. Put some glue on the bamboo sticks before inserting, which will strengthen the frame of the lantern

Cut four pieces of the rice paper to fit the size of the four upright sides of your lantern frame, and then paste one piece of this rice paper onto each of the sides. You can also draw some images or write some letters or characters onto the paper before affixing it to the frame

Insert one more sorghum stem across the middle of the underside of the frame with the help of bamboo sticks, and fix the candle onto the middle of this sorghum stem with the nail

Cross the four long bamboo sticks across the top surface (two vertical, two horizontal, like a "noughts and crosses" board) to further strengthen the lantern. Then fasten the two ends of the cotton string to each of the diagonal intersections

Tie the sorghum stick around the center of the string, which can then be used as handle to carry the lantern

Light the candle, and the lantern is ready

Add: 1/F, No.81, Lane 1025 Nanjing Road West 南京西路1025弄静安别墅81号1楼

Tel: 6218-5859

Opening hours: 12:30 pm to 8 pm (closed on Mondays)