The annual Yuyuan Garden Lantern Festival is set to light up Shanghai on Jan 1 to mark the upcoming Year of the Snake, with a special exhibition to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

 Running until Feb 12, the 42-day event at Yuyuan Garden, a major tourism destination in Shanghai, features a diverse collection of lanterns that exhibit the zodiac creature as the theme.

 Decorated by various other elements of animals, forests, mountains and elves, the lantern installations aim to present a diverse, vibrant and harmonious scene of life forms. The Yuyuan Lantern Festival has become an iconic Chinese New Year cultural event since it was held in 1995.