Sunday 21 September 2008

Chinese Lantern Festival - Part 2

As promised, the animals. This is a very small sample of the animals represented in these fantastic lanterns. Animals from all corners of the world.
Below, a platypus emerging from an egg.

A peacock in full display.

A whole herd of elephants were grazing on the shore of Lake Ontario.... this is the baby of the family......

.... but I hope he's watching out for the leopards and the tigers. They look hungry.

To the Arctic where the polar bears live....

........ and of course, the Antarctic to see the penguins.

Not only are these lanterns spectacular at night, they also MOVE!
For those of you who like numbers:
68 days to transport the materials from Zigong, China, and to construct the sets.
64 Master Craftsmen to build them.
280,000 metres of silk.
Over 95 tons of steel for the frames.
120,000 lights.
150 12 litre containers of weather resistant glue.
Over 16 km of electrical wire.
6 generators providing 1,215,000 watts of electricity.
32 lantern installations total including 300 animal lanterns.
When this show is over in October, all the lanterns will be destroyed, and work begins on a new set for 2009.
For Chinese Lanterns Part 1 - scroll down.

28 comments:

  1. What a fantastic display. Definately worth waiting for!

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  2. I love these; you really captured the lighting well, too.

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  3. I'd love to take young Muppet to see something like that.

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  4. Wow! These are awesome! A shame that they are destroyed after the event.

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  5. Wow and Wow and Wow - that's all I have to say!!! Thanks so much for posting these.

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  6. Too bad they have to be destroyed and not recycled into a kids' museum or something. Beautiful pics!

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  7. These are FANTASTIC! I've never seen anything like this---It must be incredibly spectacular--in person---It takes my breath away just seeing the pictures!

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  8. This is just fantastic!!! ... and I never heard about this festival before! Thanks for the info and all these nice photos!

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  9. Found your blog...somehow?!! Anyway, I've been to the Lantern Festival the last two years and thoroughly enjoyed it and now you've whetted my appetite for more. Am planning on going next weekend - every year the display is different so one can never get blase about it. Great photos. Am scrolling down to read more.

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  10. Dennis could send Eddy over to help destroy these beautiful lanterns. Actually, Dennis is pretty good at um, poking holes in stuff.

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  12. Dennis likes these really nice pictures you took. really preetty.

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  13. I can't believe they're going to destroy them!!

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  14. Magnificent art. I so envy the dedication and talent it takes to create something of such beauty.

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  15. Wow! Just fantastic! Really gorgeous!

    Thanks for your nice comment on my blog!

    Have a great week ahead!

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  16. Those are just amazing. Thanks for sharing it.

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  17. This art is so very beautiful....I think it is a custom or ritual to destroy them after the tour. We had Buddhist Monks here making sand sculptures and they poured the sand in the local river for good luck after the display.

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  18. Fantastic. Ican't believe that they are destroyed after the display is over. What a sad waste of beauty. I guess it would be difficult to store .

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  19. I had never heard of this festival before. A fantastic creativity has come out in these wonderful photos!!

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  20. No Way! They're just gonna destroy them? Such beauties, so sad to have to say goodbye to the so quickly.

    (We're on our 13th year w/ the Volvo and hope to make it to 21 years, too. It's been a great car, but this year it's been thru the ringer. Aside from the break-in, we had to replace the transmission and radiator. With all that, it should last another 8 years, right? Cross your fingers.)

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  21. The colours are just incredible. I wish I had been there but your photography makes me feel as if I was. Beautiful!

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  22. WOW!!!!
    I'd love to have seen this festival!
    How beautiful it all is.
    I scrolled down to your previous post also.
    I've never seen anything like this before.
    Very impressive.

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  23. splendid this exhibits, with marvellous colours, very good work!

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  24. Fascinating
    Thanks for sharing this spectacular festival

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  25. Those are all so cool - I wish I could have seen them too!

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  26. Oh wow. And WOW again. These are amazing - and yes, they do look like the giant rabbits from our Enlighten festival.

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