The 32nd Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival

The 32nd Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival will open at China Lantern World on January 24, 2026.This year’s lantern festival, themed “Illuminating China, Building Dreams for the Future,” features 10 major sections including “Chinese Knot Boulevard,” “Fortune Square,” “Mulan Legend,” “Artisan Intangible Heritage,” and “Magical China.” With 11 large-scale lantern installations and over 200 medium and small lantern displays, it creates an immersive celebration blending intangible cultural heritage techniques with cutting-edge digital technology, offering visitors an artistic panorama of “Harmonious Coexistence.”This is a spectacular lantern festival blending ancient and modern elements, where Zigong lanterns, tie-dyeing, paper-cutting, and other intangible cultural heritage techniques are deeply integrated with Chinese mythological epics and classic historical tales. Centered around the imagery of the Year of the Horse, numerous folk stories, ancient legends, and cultural elements will be brilliantly showcased through the lantern displays.The “Chinese Knot Gate” lantern installation, standing 35m tall and inspired by traditional Chinese knots, achieves visual harmony from both front and back views, resembling a time portal connecting past and present. The massive “Mystical China” lantern set, approximately 210m long, draws from Zhuangzi’s grand imagery of the Kunpeng fish-bird, using mythological storytelling to showcase national strength and ethnic pride. The 22m-tall “Yearly Fortune” Nian Beast lantern features AI interactive systems, enabling heartwarming “conversations” between humans and this ancient auspicious creature. For the upcoming Year of the Horse, the 180m-long “Mulan’s Legend” installation—based on the Ballad of Mulan—pairs dynamic horse sculptures with Mulan’s heroic bearing, conveying profound patriotic sentiment.This is a creative world where “everything can become a lamp,”This year’s lantern festival pushes creative boundaries by incorporating eco-friendly recycled materials like blue-and-white porcelain, straw, medicine bottles, and chili peppers, alongside local cultural elements and trendy materials such as pipe cleaners into themed lantern displays. Not only does it showcase the concept of “turning waste into treasure,” but it also revitalizes ordinary materials through intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship, embodying the cultural essence of “everything has a spirit, and masterful artistry unites all.”In the “Imagine the Future” section, the dreamy lantern display “Fantasy Lantern Collection” draws inspiration from children’s artwork, featuring nearly 6,000 paintings by kids worldwide. Skilled lantern artisans, like modern-day “Magic Paintbrush Ma Liang,” transform these imaginative drawings into vibrant lanterns. These creations transcend skin color, age, and nationality, using light and shadow as a bridge to connect children’s innocent dreams globally, planting the seeds of “Zigong lanterns” across the world.This is an immersive experience powered by technology across all scenarios. The lantern festival breaks traditional viewing modes, focusing on “technological innovation + interactive experience” by incorporating AI interaction, smart touch controls, and light-sensing technology, allowing visitors to personally trigger changes in light, shadow, and sound effects. A cross-border alliance of virtual digital humans and scenes combining bionic robotic dinosaurs with AR technology transports visitors through time for an interactive journey. Technology seamlessly connects “viewing, playing, sensing, and reflecting,” revitalizing millennia-old lantern traditions in the digital age.Additionally, the 300-meter-long “Salt Street Lantern Market” has been transformed into an exclusive themed Trip Moments street, featuring diverse photo spots such as ancient-style pavilions, cyber light installations, and folk culture markets. It also offers costume rentals and prop services to cater to various photography styles. The entire park features 360-degree immersive performances, with NPCs having unique scripted roles. The storyline unfolds naturally along the tour route through interactive dialogues and fun tasks, creating a deeply immersive experience where “every step reveals a new scene, and every scene tells a story.”As countless lights illuminate the new year across this ancient land, it transforms into a flowing epic of light and shadow. This is not just a meeting of craftsmanship and technology, but a profound dialogue between timeless heritage and future aspirations.Let us look forward together to how this luminous feast will brilliantly renew the millennium-old tales through light and shadow, allowing the starry river of China to gently flow within each lantern.