Dates: Jan 1 - March 31, 2026
Location: Shazhou Night Market
Admission: Free

Winter touring in Dunhuang is enhanced by its splendid lantern show during the Chinese New Year period. This year, the upgraded and grand Dunhuang Lantern Festival lights up the Shazhou Night Market, inviting you to embark on an immersive cultural journey with free admission.

Every night, from 7 pm to 12 am until March 31, strolling through the market, you may encounter large lantern installations infused with Dunhuang culture. Flying Apsaras, Reverse (over-the-shoulder, on-the-back) Pipa (a four-stringed Chinese lute), Nine-Colored Deer … these iconic mural motifs are seamlessly blended with Silk Road heritage and Xiyu (Western Regions) aesthetics, bringing millennia of history to life in glowing color.

More than a lantern display, the 2026 Dunhuang Lantern Festival offers an immersive, interactive experience. Roaming NPCs (non-player characters) — including pipa-playing musicians, Silk Road merchants, and valiant guards — invite you to engage with them and earn special "tokens". With these tokens, you can solve riddles, try touhu (pitch-pot), and create rubbings of Dunhuang-style motifs to collect stamps, which can be used to redeem exclusive Dunhuang-inspired souvenirs.