Wenzhou

A special kind of boat, dubbed "Dragon Boat Lantern", prevails in Leqing and Yongjia counties of Wenzhou City. A piece of arc-shaped wood is used as the boat's main body, while bamboo strips and paper are applied to form the shape ofa dragon. The boat is three meters long and three meters high. The dragon's head in the front is delicately decorated with a pearl in the mouth and tassels hanging as the beard, while its body is composed of a five- to seven-storied pavilion.

Small flags of various colors are placed all over the "dragon" body as ornaments. The pavilion walls are made of two layers of paper. The inside layer is made of transparent white paper, and the outside is usually made of colorful paper carvings of various shapes. When the light in the "abdomen" of the dragon is lit, colorful and twinkling small figures vividly appear to the viewers. The whole boat is a combination of several boats equipped with more than 70 pavilions, on which about 300 silk figures are placed. These figures are largely from Chinese novel classics likeThe Romance of the Three KingdomsandThe CompleteStorytellingof Yue Fei.