Chinese lantern festival to open in Britain

Peacock-shaped lanterns are seen at the illumination ceremony for the Chinese Festival of Light in Longleat of Wiltshire, southwest England, on Nov 12, 2014. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

 An oriental lantern festival will open on Friday in Wiltshire, southwestern Britain, to display thousands of lanterns made by Chinese craftsmen.

The Festival of Light, hosted by Longleat, a stately home with more than 400-year history, will highlight a 70-meter-long dragon, made up of 23,000 lit porcelain cups, bowls and plates and traditional Chinese auspicious creatures Qilin.

About 7,000 individual lanterns, 15 km of silk and a 40 km of LED lights are used to create a series of stunning scenes for the festival, which including giant pandas, Peking Opera masks, and the building of the Temple of Heaven.

Despite of those Chinese elements, some wild animal lanterns, such as zebras, crocodiles and giraffes, will also be shown, as the site of the festival is located at a safari park.

Organizers said all of those lanterns were created by a team of 100 craftsmen from Zigong County, southwestern China's Sichuan Province.

"Nothing like it has been attempted on this scale before in Britain," said Robert Montgomery, CEO of Longleat Enterprises Ltd.

It is "a good way to promote traditional Chinese culture for overseas visitors," said Li Zhongwen, general manager of VYA Creative Lantern Co., Ltd., from Sichuan Province, who worked with Longleat for the festival.

The festival will run until January 4th.