(Yicai) Dec. 18 -- Yu Garden, which is renowned for the spectacular lantern show that it puts on each year in downtown Shanghai to celebrate the Lantern Festival that falls on the 15th day of the lunar new year, kicked off its first overseas lantern show on Dec. 15 in Paris, the same day that its extravaganza in Shanghai lit up.

The French Yu Garden Lantern Festival is being held in the Jardin d’Acclimatation for 72 days to Feb. 25 next year, and spans many important holidays such as Christmas, New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival and Valentine’s Day.

Next year is the Year of the Dragon in the lunar calendar and many of the 60 large lantern sets and over 2,000 lanterns on display in Paris have a dragon theme. There will also be 350 performances, including Chinese martial arts and traditional acrobatics, will take place in the garden.

The full Shanghai extravaganza will start in late January and run for more than 40 days to the end of February.

French and Chinese dignitaries such as Lu Shaye, Chinese Ambassador to France, Ni Qiang, president of Yu Garden operator Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart Group, Hubert Vedrine, former French Foreign Minister, Marc-Antoine Jamet, director of Jardin d'Acclimatation and secretary general of LVMH, light lanterns together with a group of children at the opening ceremony.

Giant lantern sets featuring mythical creatures from Chinese legends are on display.

The Zigzag Bridge and the Huxinting Teahouse, which are iconic areas of the Yu Garden in Shanghai, appear in lantern-form at the Paris event.

Lanterns of traditional Chinese Hanfu clothing light up one area of the event.

Visitors can queue up for a basket of Nanxiang steamed buns, a famous delicacy sold at the Yu Garden in Shanghai by a sixth-generation descendant of this intangible cultural heritage.

Editor: Kim Taylor