On the evening of January 23, the 32nd Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival illumination ceremony and the province-wide Spring Festival cultural-tourism consumption promotion event were launched at the Zigong · Chinese Lantern World. Officials from the consular institutions in Sichuan and Chongqing of 13 countries—Austria, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Viet Nam, Germany, France, Hungary, Pakistan, South Korea, Myanmar, Türkiye and Chile—visited the festival in an organized group. Amidst the radiant and colorful spectacle, they experienced Sichuan's cultural appeal and open, dynamic vitality.

As night fell, the 35-meter-high "Magnificent Knot Illuminates the Gateway" lantern set was the first to be lit. Its Chinese knot design, visually consistent from both the front and back, resembled a portal through time and space, heralding the commencement of the lantern festival. Following this, 11 sets of mega-sized lantern displays and over 200 sets of medium and small-sized intangible cultural heritage lanterns gradually illuminated the scene. Faced with lantern sets such as the "Marvelous China", which embodies the majestic form of the mythical Kunpeng, the "Legend of Mulan", which artfully merges the imagery of the Year of the Horse with sentiments of home and country, and the "Yearly Wealth Beckons", which integrates AI interaction into its design, the consular officials frequently paused to take photographs and expressed their admiration. For many of the consular officials, it was their first time viewing Zigong's lantern displays, with words like "absolutely stunning" and "breathtaking" becoming their most frequent descriptors.

"Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!" exclaimed Cándido Creis Estrada, Consul General of Spain in Chengdu, who was experiencing the Zigong Lantern Festival for the first time. Gazing at the dazzlingly brilliant lanterns, he expressed his excitement by emphatically repeating "fantastic!" twice. Throughout the visit, he and his wife warmly interacted with other visitors, sharing their impressions of the lanterns. He expressed a wish, stating, "I truly hope Spain could also host such a lantern festival and celebration." Bui Nguyen Long, Consul General of Viet Nam in Chongqing, who was also visiting the Zigong Lantern Festival for the first time, remarked with similar admiration, "I had heard before coming that the Zigong Lantern Festival is exceptionally beautiful, yet being here in person today, I am still utterly amazed. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, it would truly be hard to imagine lanterns of such magnificence and grandeur."

Unlike Cándido Creis Estrada and Bui Nguyen Long, Günther Lazelsberger, Consul General of Austria in Chengdu, and Kürti Tamás Dániel, Deputy Head of Consular Mission of Hungary in Chongqing, are old friends of the Zigong Lantern Festival. When asked about the differences between this year's lantern festival and those of previous years, both individuals stated coincidentally that each year's festival incorporates many innovative elements. They found this year's additions, such as the robot dance and the drone performance, particularly novel and impressive. Günther Lazelsberger, who was born in the Year of the Horse, also humorously remarked: "There are many horse-related elements in this year's lantern festival, which left a particularly deep impression on me because my Chinese zodiac sign is a 'horse'. After touring the festival, I feel as if my own New Year has arrived."

"Sichuan has invited consular officials from various countries to visit Zigong and view the lanterns for multiple consecutive years," stated a relevant official from the Foreign Affairs Office of Sichuan Province. The province aims to leverage this lantern art to vividly present Sichuan's appeal and developmental vitality to international friends, convey its open stance, foster deeper people-to-people bonds between China and other nations, and further promote international cooperation in areas such as culture and tourism, the official noted.

"I believe that lantern art, like what we witnessed today, is compelling enough to capture the attention of the entire world," Günther Lazelsberger remarked. He noted that lanterns serve as an excellent medium for promoting cultural exchange and mutual appreciation between Sichuan's traditional culture and those of other nations worldwide. He expressed a hope for more exchange activities centered around lanterns, using their radiant splendor to encourage more people to discover, understand, and visit Sichuan.

In recent years, the Zigong Lantern Festival has been showcased in over 80 countries and regions. In addition, Sichuan has actively worked to attract visitors to Sichuan, continuously enhancing the convenience of inbound travel. This includes resuming, launching new, and increasing frequencies on popular international passenger air routes, promoting convenient ticketing methods such as "air-rail intermodality", and optimizing the customs clearance experience for travelers. Concurrently, Sichuan has enhanced the convenience of foreign currency and international card payments, introducing specialized support policies such as the six measures to improve payment convenience for foreign nationals in Sichuan. Chengdu has become the first city in central and western China to fully support direct payment using both domestic and international bank cards across its entire public transportation system.