Lantern Crafts (Qinhuai Lanterns)

Qinhuai lanterns, also called Jinling or Nanjing lanterns, are among the city's most representative folk arts; records of lantern craft appear as early as the Eastern Jin, and the art has flourished alongside the Qinhuai Lantern Festival.

Lantern-making draws on paper craft, painting, calligraphy, paper-cutting, shadow puppetry, embroidery and sculpture, and uses carpentry, lacquer, colouring, carving, clay modelling and knotting to form richly shaped, vividly coloured lanterns.

Listed in the second national batch in 2008 under traditional arts, it is the core craft behind the Qinhuai Lantern Festival.