If You Are Lucky Enough To Live Near,

Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington,

 you have a treat to see, for six weeks every year, Riverfront Park becomes a brilliantly coloured, glowing festival of Chinese culture at the Washington State Chinese Lantern Festival,

  this year’s event runs through to October 30 and has 37 huge lantern displays, together holding more than 12,000 LED light bulbs,

  the lights reflect off pieces of coloured glass, silk and porcelain, creating a bright multi-hued glow throughout the park at night,

 this year’s lanterns include a display of pandas, penguins, Kylin (an ancient mythical Chinese beast), plants, fish and more,

 Jon Moog, Riverfront Park’s director, commented that two of his favourite lanterns this year are the Chinese dragon and the porcelain pagoda, “I’m in awe by the immense scale,” he said. “The pictures simply do not do the lanterns justice, the Chinese Dragon lantern is over 120 feet long, and its head is as large as a compact car, the Porcelain Pagoda towers over 50 feet tall and is lined with over 100,000 pieces of porcelain china, each individually hand tied to form the nine-tower complex, they are really pieces of art come to life.”

the lanterns themselves were built by a team of 23 electricians, designers and engineers, all from Sichuan in China, each design starts with wire moulded into the shape of the lantern, forming a skeletal frame, lights are then placed inside by the electricians, next, artisans hand stretch and glue silk over the frames and paint or draw on intricate details, what a spectacle to behold, and better still there are two shows every night, I wish we were there, in any event for an evening out this is the place to be, as always check first before making travel plans and have a happy trip.