Text by MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Team
The Lantern Festival is one of Taiwan’s three major traditional holidays, marking the first full moon night of the new year and celebrating the arrival of spring. The 2017 Nantou Lantern Festival features a series of rich themed activities, combining sand sculptures and a dinosaur exhibition, with exciting performances and lantern displays throughout the day and night.
The main lantern “Auspicious Dawn Chorus” follows the Taiwan Lantern Festival format with scheduled performances, rotating 360 degrees to the tune of the festival’s theme song. (Photo credit: Nantou County Government)
Designed around the rooster year theme, the Nantou Lantern Festival’s main lantern “Auspicious Dawn Chorus” incorporates iconic local landscapes like Yushan Mountain and floral elements. Blending traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, the lantern uses creative light, form, and shadow to create an extraordinary visual impact.
The Tongliang Fire Dragon is a rare and spectacular traditional art form dating back to the Ming Dynasty. (Photo credit: Nantou County Government)
This year, the internationally renowned Tongliang Fire Dragon performance troupe from Chongqing, China, is making its first-ever Taiwan appearance. Beyond traditional dragon dancing, the show features molten iron sparks—created by pouring molten iron from furnaces into the air—creating a dazzling fiery spectacle as the dragon dances through the sparks, delivering an awe-inspiring performance to usher in the New Year.
This is the 2016 sand sculpture display. (Photo credit: Nantou County Government)
The lantern festival also includes a sand sculpture art exhibition, now open at the “Nantou International Sand Sculpture Art & Culture Park.” A unique feature allows visitors to pose creatively with the sculptures—for example, sitting on a chair to listen to an old tea storyteller or interacting with Jesus from Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” to become a modern-day Adam.
The dinosaur park combines modern technology with lifelike dinosaur models to create a family-friendly attraction, featuring a dinosaur photo zone, 3D mural area, dinosaur time tunnel, comic interaction zone, and a dinosaur racetrack. The 5D dynamic cinema immerses visitors in the prehistoric world of dinosaurs through visuals, sound effects, and physical sensations.
The 15-meter-tall, colorful main lantern “Auspicious Dawn Chorus.” (Photo credit: Nantou County Government)
[Info]
◎ Nantou Lantern Festival
Date: Now until February 19
Hours: 16:30–22:00 (lanterns off after closing)
Venue: Nantou Convention & Exhibition Center (No. 26, Zuxi East Road, Neixing Village, Nantou City)
◎ Nantou City Lantern Festival
Date: Now until February 17
Venue: Zhongshan Park, Nantou City
◎ Tongliang Fire Dragon in Nantou
Dates & Shows: February 9 (1 show), February 10 (1 show), February 11 (2 shows)
Venue: Piaosha Stage – Shunxi North Road (15-minute walk from the lantern festival)
◎ Dinosaur Park Exhibition
Date: Now until May 7
Opening Hours: 13:00–21:00
Venue: Nantou Convention & Exhibition Center (No. 26, Zuxi East Road, Neixing Village, Nantou City)
Organizer: Zhongxin International Co., Ltd.
◎ Sand Sculpture Art Exhibition
Date: Now until May 7
Location: Next to Huayang Road beside the Nantou City’s Mouluo River (exit from National Highway 3; enjoy the sand sculpture exhibition even on rainy days)
New Lunar New Year Check-in Hotspot: Zinan Temple 3D Painted Staircase
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