People launch wishing lamps in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, while celebrating the Lantern Festival on Thursday, the official end to the traditional Chinese Spring Festival. Millions of lamps lit up the 300-year-old city, Shenzhen Daily photographer Sun Yuchen reported from Qiqihar.

Newman Huo

FOLK artist Liu Shouxin amazed audience by drawing inside a tiny bottle using a special pen manipulated through the neck of the bottle at Lantern Festival celebrations at a square near the Shenzhen Concert Hall in Futian District on Thursday.

The square had a festive atmosphere as residents and government officials gathered to mark the end of the traditional Spring Festival.

Inner painting is usually done in bottles 2.5 cm or 5 cm high and drawn on the inside surface, which requires exquisite skill.

In April last year, Liu set up his own company in Shenzhen promoting the art of inner painting and is preparing to apply for a Shenzhen intangible cultural heritage listing this year.

Liu was among folk artists invited to demonstrate more than 40 examples of traditional Chinese handcraft and folk art, including shadow puppetry, rice grain carving, Chinese knitting, straw plaiting, paper cutting, kites, egg carving, Beijing opera masks and calligraphy.

Adding to the festive atmosphere was a lion dance troupe from Xin’an Subdistrict in Bao’an District and a dragon dance troupe from Pinghu Subdistrict in Longgang. The dances have been listed among Guangdong’s provincial intangible cultural heritage.

Festivities reached a climax when residents were invited to eat the 2,011 sweet dumplings organizers had prepared. The dumplings are said to stand for harmony in the family as well as a lucky new year.