The Lantern Festival

Yuanxiao falls on the first full moon of the lunar year and closes the new year period. Streets and canal banks are hung with lanterns, once paper and now often silk stretched over steel frames, with riddles pasted to them for passers-by to solve. The food is tangyuan in the south and yuanxiao in the north, glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame, peanut or red bean and served in their cooking water. Nanjing's Qinhuai fair has run beside the river for centuries, and Zigong in Sichuan builds lantern sets the size of buildings, including dragons tied together from thousands of porcelain cups and spoons. The wider new year celebration entered the UNESCO intangible list in 2024.

What you actually see

• The lantern fairs - frames from hand-sized to house-sized, lit from dusk onwards.
• Riddle lanterns - couplets pinned to the frames with an answer to guess.
• Tangyuan - sesame-filled rice balls, eaten hot and eaten everywhere that night.
• Zigong's sets - vast lantern structures, some tied together from porcelain tableware.

When to go

The date moves with the lunar calendar and usually falls in February or early March. Fairs open in the late afternoon and are at their best from dusk to about nine, which is also when they are most crowded. Book accommodation weeks ahead, since it lands inside the busiest travel period of the Chinese year.

Honest expectations

Crowds are the defining experience: main lanes move at a shuffle and stewards funnel traffic one way only. Trains and flights around the new year are full and expensive, and many small eateries and shops close for the holiday. Fireworks are restricted in most city centres. Rain flattens the whole thing completely.

Nearby

The Qinhuai riverside lanes in Nanjing and Xi'an's city wall both stage large fairs.