Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Wulan Ancient Town of Zhangye City in northwest China's Gansu to watch the lighting up of the spectacular Winding Yellow River Lantern Array on Saturday -- the eve of this year's Lantern Festival.

The Lantern Festival is the 15th day of the first month on Chinese lunar calendar. The festival is habitually seen as the conclusion of the Spring Festival celebrations.

The 2.4-kilometer lantern array consists of 365 lanterns, which are arranged according to the Nine Palaces and the Eight Trigrams Formation used for divination in ancient China. People believe that walking around the lantern array would bring them a good harvest and a better life in the coming 365 days.

The custom was introduced to Ganzhou from the Yellow River basin as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Passing down from generation to generation, it has become a local ritual to celebrate the Lantern Festival.

Besides the lantern array, people can also watch Chinese puppet shows with jaw-dropping tricks including face changing and fire breathing.

With tens of thousands of people coming to the Wulan Ancient Town to see the lantern array around the Spring Festival holiday, the number of daily visitors is estimated to reach 20,000 on Sunday.

The Ganzhou District, which houses the Wulan Ancient Town, reported that tourism revenue during the official Spring Festival holiday season in late January reached 470 million yuan (about 70 million U.S. dollars).