Water town display includes Yuyuan lanterns

Miss the Lantern Festival display at Yuyuan Garden, or just didn't want to fight the crowds?

Here's another chance.

All the lanterns have been relocated from Yuyuan Garden in downtown Shanghai to Fengjing town, Jinshan district, which has prolonged its lantern festival to the end of this month in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the water town's opening to the public as a tourism site.

More than 140 sets of large lanterns have turned Fengjing into a dreamy world of lights, and the Yuyuan Garden display has been upgraded, with more Jinshan elements added.

It costs more than 2 million yuan (US$325,800) each year to build the lanterns for the Yuyuan Garden festival, and they are quite impressive. The Lantern King is a golden horse, for the current Year of the Horse. The entire art piece is 10 meters high and 3 tons in weight, covering an area of 160 square meters, while the protagonist horse is about 6 meters high and 10 meters long, three times the size of a real one.

The animal is galloping ahead with flowing clouds at the hoofs, golden hair flying in the wind. Other lanterns include dragons and phoenix as well as various Chinese mythological figures.

All the lanterns are on display at Jinpu Zhaidi Square, the main entrance of the water town.

Each night from 6:30 to 9, the sky of Fengjing will be illuminated by brilliant lanterns. At the same time, visitors can try to guess the riddles hung on the lanterns. If you guess right, you may get a Fengjing-grown agricultural product.

Renovated and opened 10 years ago, Fengjing has been one of the major tourism destinations allowing urban dwellers to enjoy countryside scenery and water town folk arts.

This month the town will be invigorated with the Fengxi Corridor, a renovated ancient cobblestone street of bars, cafes and teahouses to attract more young people.

Date: Through March 31, 6:30–9pm

Address: Fengjing Town, Jinshan District

If you go

By car: Shanghai-Hangzhou Highway (A8 section). Get off at Fengjing Exit. Follow the signs for two minutes and you will see the town's parking lot.

By subway/bus: Take Metro Line 1 and get off at Jinjiang Park Station. Take the shuttle Bus Line Fengmei (Fengjing-Meilong) at the transit hub by the Metro station. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the town.

More buses: There are frequent shuttle buses to Fengjing every day from Shanghai Stadium and Hongkou Football Stadium.