THE finishing touches are being added to Longleat’s Festival of Light display, which consists of more than 23,000 individual lanterns and will be open to the public from tomorrow.

The illuminated display has been constructed by a team of highly-skilled artists from China’s Sichuan province who used more than 18 kilometres of silk, 20 kilometres of LED lighting and 76 tonnes of steel.

Taking inspiration from Chinese heritage, there is a near life-size recreation of the 800-year-old Manfeilong pagoda made from 85,000 porcelain cups, bowls and plates, a 20-metre long floating imperial dragon boat and a giant blue and white tea set created from 220,000 liquid filled glass phials.

There is also a 100-metre-long Chinese dragon, the war chariot from Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta army, a section of the Great Wall of China and part of the Silk Road.

Herds of illuminated safari park animals and shoals of glowing fish in an underwater ocean setting have also been created.

Bob Montgomery, Longleat’s chief executive, said: “The Festival of Light is something truly unique. We are really excited about our second festival as we had such a great reaction to last year's.

“This time we really focused on doing more spectacular, bigger lanterns so we have the 20-metre dragon boat, which is really stunning. It's amazing they built something that size from scratch in just three weeks.

"The craftsmen are very diligent workers but the creativity is the thing that really sets it apart, the detail that goes into it all takes it to another level.

"This year we've also tried to put the emphasis on aspects of Chinese culture to make it more educational. We have great stories from the Chinese dynasties, like the Tang dynasty, the legend of the Monkey King and the Terracotta Army.

"People have already said they're excited about it and I think we're going to see a big Christmas.”

The new Festival of Light will run alongside Longleat’s traditional Christmas celebrations which include the Santa Trains, Giant Musical Christmas Tree, Fairytale Characters and an outdoor Ice Skating Rink.

The Festival of Light at Longleat opens Fridays to Sundays from November 13 to December 6 and then daily from December 11 to January 3, excluding Christmas Day.