The Chinese New Year celebrations drew to an end in the same way that they began - with a bang! On the fifteenth day after the start of the new year, falls the Lantern Festival. Traditionally, children went out to temples carrying simple paper lanterns and solved riddles written on lanterns. Now the lanterns are more decorative and are often in the shape of animals and often sponsored by multinational companies!
The best place in Shanghai for the lantern festival is Yu Yuan, the oldest part. They put up lots of decorations for Chinese New Year and have hundreds of lanterns lit up at night. Sam and I went after the lantern festival, on the last day that it was lit up.
Despite it being the last day, it was still pretty crowded, but it was well worth seeing the spectacular Dragon and Phoenix lit up.
There were also lots of different lanterns everywhere. Some were more modern in their decor while others were more traditional.
After seeing everything we decided that as the lantern festival is also known as Chinese Valentine's day we'd go for a meal! Sam and I never pass up an opportunity to have some xiao long bao!
The romantic occassion seemed to be lost on the couple at the table next to us!
The best place in Shanghai for the lantern festival is Yu Yuan, the oldest part. They put up lots of decorations for Chinese New Year and have hundreds of lanterns lit up at night. Sam and I went after the lantern festival, on the last day that it was lit up.
Despite it being the last day, it was still pretty crowded, but it was well worth seeing the spectacular Dragon and Phoenix lit up.
The old tea house looked fantastic and you could just see the modern city towering over in the background
There were also lots of different lanterns everywhere. Some were more modern in their decor while others were more traditional.
After seeing everything we decided that as the lantern festival is also known as Chinese Valentine's day we'd go for a meal! Sam and I never pass up an opportunity to have some xiao long bao!
The romantic occassion seemed to be lost on the couple at the table next to us!
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