Zhenyuan, a famous historical and cultural city, has the traditional custom of annual dragon dance performances during the Lantern Festival, which is mainly held in Zhenyuan County, southeast Guizhou. Zhenyuan is located at the junction of Hunan and Guizhou provinces in the east of Guizhou. It is adjacent to Xinhuang in western Hunan to the east, Shibing and Huangping to the west, Kaili Prefecture to the south, and Tongren area to the north. Because it is located at the junction of the Wuling Mountain and the main vein of the Miaoling Mountain, it belongs to karst limestone geology. The strange mountains, beautiful waters, caves, jungles, terraces, and wilderness throughout the city and countryside are cleverly woven into a unique ecological environment, creating the famous Danyang Three Gorges, Tiexi, Gaoguo River, Longchi and other charming natural scenery. Zhenyuan has a long history of more than 2,000 years and a splendid culture. It is an important route on the Southwest Silk Road and is known as the "Gateway to Eastern Guizhou" and the "Throat of Hunan and Guizhou". For hundreds of years before 1995, Zhenyuan was the seat of a prefecture and a prefecture for a long time. It was the political, economic, cultural, and military center of Eastern Guizhou. In 1986, it was named a famous historical and cultural city of China by the State Council. The Zhenyuan Lantern Festival has a long history. First, it is said that Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty pacified Empress Lü on the 15th day of the first lunar month, which was designated as the Lantern Festival. Second, it is said that on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the Qinglong, who benefited the people of Zhenyuan, was killed by mistake. The people built the Qinglong Temple to commemorate it. Every year in the first lunar month, they tie a Qinglong with bamboo strips, paste it with silk cloth, and draw the appearance of the Qinglong with colored pens. It is majestic and vivid, to show gratitude and remembrance. The Zhenyuan Lantern Festival, commonly known as playing with dragon lanterns, originated in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and has continued for more than 400 years. The "Zhenyuan Prefecture Chronicle" records: There is a so-called "fire on the 30th night and lanterns on the 15th day", and it is also said: "The fire burns the paper in front of the door, and everyone goes to work". People in the city began to choose auspicious days to open and run businesses, and children began to choose auspicious days to go to school. Since the third day of the first lunar month, cities and towns have paid for drums and music, made dragon lanterns, and played stories in the city. They choose a day to play, which is called playing with dragon lanterns. When the dragon lanterns are played, the lights are brilliant, and the spectators fill the streets and alleys, which is very lively. There are also people who dress up in costumes and sing songs, which is called flower lanterns. When the dragon lantern is passed into the house, firecrackers are set off to welcome it, which is called receiving the lantern. At the receiving lantern place, there are crowds of people watching. The people who play with the lanterns are burned by firecrackers. Although the fat is broken, they do not think it is a problem. It is said that it can cure all diseases. To this day, the Zhenyuan Lantern Festival Dragon Lantern Festival is the most lively folk cultural activity in Zhenyuan in the first month of the lunar year, with tens of thousands of spectators. The Zhenyuan Lantern Festival Dragon Lantern Festival starts on the eighth day of the first month of the lunar calendar every year and ends on the fifteenth day. The Dragon Lantern Festival is purely a festival folk art display and carnival activity organized by the people. The government mostly does not participate, but only supports it in terms of financial support, security, and coordination services. The Dragon Lantern Festival organization organizes the Dragon Lantern Team based on the neighborhood committee. The Dragon Lantern Team sets up a preparatory group, and the masses elect an elder with high moral character and experience in playing with lanterns as the team leader, who is respectfully called the Lantern Head. The preparatory group consists of a publicity group, a financial group, a logistics group, a reception group, and a security group. The publicity group is responsible for data collection and collation, external publicity and liaison, organization and design of lanterns, planning of lantern playing procedures, etc. The financial group is responsible for fundraising, management, use, settlement, and announcement. The logistics group is responsible for material supply, living arrangements, gift distribution, cleaning of lanterns, etc. The reception group is responsible for external liaison, business contact, etiquette reception, etc. The security group is responsible for formulating regulations, patrolling on duty, maintaining order, and ensuring safety. The amount of funds raised is the key to the success or failure of the Dragon Lantern Festival. There are three main sources of funds: one is donations from residents of the street; the second is sponsorship from government agencies, enterprises, and institutions; and the third is support from collective enterprises and individual enterprises. The Dragon Lantern Festival is fixed at the eighth day of the first lunar month every year, and ends at midnight on the fifteenth day of the Lantern Festival. On the sixteenth and seventeenth nights, the dragon enters the house and makes a scene, praying for the blessing of the Dragon King, which lasts for a total of 10 days. The Dragon Lantern Festival is located in the streets and squares of the two cities of Zhenyuan Prefecture and Wei. The traditional folk art forms of the Dragon Lantern Festival include lighting lanterns, recruiting students, holding fish and shrimps, carrying flower baskets, dragon dancing, lion dancing, stilt walking, boat racing, playing with clams, dancing with lanterns, carrying stories, performing art programs, etc. There are nearly 20 kinds of dazzling and exquisite performances, especially dragon dancing, lion dancing, and carrying stories. The whole process of the Dragon Lantern Festival is carried out at night. Before the lanterns are lit, the dragon lantern teams of each street must hold a sacrificial ceremony for the Dragon King. Then each team will set off firecrackers and beat gongs and drums. The lantern head holds the iconic red lantern of the street and walks in front of the dragon lantern team. Then they will line up in order according to various art forms and move forward slowly. The number of people participating in the lantern playing ranges from more than 300 to more than 1,000. The lanterns of each dragon lantern team lead the way in front, and the dragon lanterns sweep the tail to hold the line. The dragon lantern is a bamboo-woven hard dragon with a dragon treasure, a dragon head, and a dragon body. The dragons are of different lengths. The longest one has more than 30 sections. The dragon body is covered with colorful cloth and the dragon belly is lit with paper oil lamps. The dragons are lifelike, majestic, and flashing red, dazzling. The dragons in each street have different colors, including red dragons, white dragons, green dragons, yellow dragons, purple dragons, black dragons, etc. Each dragon lantern team lights up at 7 pm on the eighth day of the first lunar month, and travels around the city to show their strength and style. The performance forms of Zhenyuan Lantern Festival can be roughly divided into three types: one is music, singing and dancing. Each street dragon lantern team has a group of backbone performers and fixed traditional repertoires. The second is skill performance. Each street dragon lantern team has a group of folk artists who are skilled and have performance levels in dragon dancing, lion dancing, and colorful boat racing. Their traditional performance forms and humorous performance skills have become a unique style and have been passed down for a long time. The third is plastic arts. Each dragon lantern team has a story-lifting performance. This is a performance art that combines high-altitude high-platform character modeling with ground sound and light and crowds. The fourth is the dragon dance performance, which is made of bamboo-woven hard dragons, which are long, solid, realistic, and beautiful. The dragon dance greets the firecrackers and fireworks in the night, like a real dragon reappearing, tumbling up and down, showing its extraordinary power, which is very spectacular. This form of dragon tying and dragon dancing is extremely rare in Guizhou and even in the whole country. At the Lantern Festival Dragon Lantern Festival, various dragon lantern teams compete in the same city, perform to their heart's content, and show their skills and abilities. It can be said that they are competing for beauty and are brilliant. The various performance forms of the Dragon Lantern Festival have reached their current scale and level after long-term continuous creation, gradual increase, and daily improvement. At the same time, since the reform and opening up, the Dragon Lantern Festival has extremely rich folk art forms and wonderful performances, which are highly praised by domestic and foreign tourists. Every year, it attracts tens of thousands of foreign tourists to watch and participate in this folk art performance event during the Yuannong Festival.