The best part of living and traveling in China is the major holidays. The Lantern Festival falls during the time of Spring Festival - a 2 week period of time that also includes Chinese New Year. Being in Yantai during this time of year you get to experience a lot of unique festivities.
During #SpringFestival all of China is decorated to celebrate the holiday season. With every passing year, Yantai has become increasingly festive. When I lived there, the city became a sleepy town (as everyone was on vacation and shops would close) and the majority of the experience was seeing and hearing fireworks/firecrackers. That is still a big part of the holiday to this day, but it's no longer the sleepy holiday of just eating and spending time with family.
After not taking part in Spring Festival in Yantai for many years, I was looking forward to the food and the firecrackers. Little did I know that there would be so much more to it. Upon arriving in Yantai, we found the local mall (Joy City) was jumping. Not only did they have a Kungfu Panda themed Spring Festival Maze outside the doors, but it also had entertainment inside.
After the joy of seeing all the festivities, we made our way down to our favorite local hangout - Blues Bar. It's our favorite because we are friends with the people that own and operate it. As we were walking down bar street (Chaoyang street), we saw that the end of the road had also been decorated for the season.
On the actual day of the Lantern Festival we made our way to Tiandi Square (China, Shandong Sheng, Yantai Shi, Fushan Qu, Songshan Rd, 烟台市开发区 邮政编码: 264006). As I'd lived in the Development Zone for 4 years, I knew that this was the epicenter of that part of town and would have lots of festivities that night. As we walked up the stairs to head to the open amphitheater, there was so much more going on than I could have anticipated.
On subsequent days, we also made a stop by Yuhuangding https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g641713-d1814206-Reviews-Yuhuangding_Park-Yantai_Shandong.html. While there we also found that they'd decorated for the season.
If you aren't afraid of the cold, the most exciting time of year to visit China would be during Spring Festival. Unfortunately, travel during this time can be incredibly expensive due to so many people traveling at the same time. Make sure to plan well ahead of time to save money and try to go to a smaller city. They really are the best places to experience local life. I may be biased, but my first suggestion would be to visit Yantai. There's so much to explore and enjoy there and the people are incredibly hospitable and friendly.
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