Dazzling Guangzhou lantern display begins countdown to Spring Festival

With light and shadow as the medium, organizers of the lantern show have tried to create a cultural event that showcases Guangzhou's historical heritage, urban vitality and open mind, jointly building a festive atmosphere of "lantern viewing across the city" and conveying China's cultural confidence and contemporary elegance to the world, the statement added.

To celebrate what will, according to Chinese calendar, be the Year of Horse, the key large-scale lantern set of the show is "Galloping Horses".

This sits on the lake with nine steed figures as the main part, reaching a maximum height of 16.88 meters, to represent the Year of Horse. Each horse boasts a distinctive posture—some holding their heads high to the sky, some galloping over waves—with tremendous momentum.

The design inspiration embodies the core spirit of loyalty, courage, perseverance and integrity from the modern "Stele of the Festival Horse", vividly reflecting Guangzhou's steady and vigorous development in the new era, said the statement. It also highlights its high-spirited stance as a pacesetter in reform and opening-up that always leads the trend.

The lantern show will continue till March 8.