Highlights from this year's Lantern Festival Galas

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Chinese New Year celebrations have officially come to an end, with the drawing of the curtains on the Lantern Festival Galas on Friday.

Unlike the Spring Festival Gala on the eve of the big day, the Lantern Festival Gala was an event for several popular TV stations across China, giving people more opportunities to switch between channels and refill their cups of tea.

In case you missed Friday's shows, below are some of the highlights from the various Lantern Festival celebrations.

CCTV

China Central Television (CCTV) has held a Lantern Festival Gala since 1985, two years after the broadcaster debuted its massive Spring Festival Gala event. The former is basically a replica of the latter, but with more surprises.

PyeongChang Olympics medalists perform the song "True Hero" at the CCTV Lantern Festival Gala. /Weibo @Chunwan

The biggest surprise may be the chorus of "True Hero" by the Olympic medalists from the just concluded PyeongChang Winter Games.

The song was written by Jonathan Lee in 1993 and was originally performed by Lee, Jackie Chan, Wakin Chau and Anthony Wong. Its inspirational lyrics have made it a popular song among Chinese people.

"I don't know if I sang to the tunes, but the atmosphere was there," said Wu Dajing, who won the only gold medal for Team China at PyeongChang in the men's 500m speed skating.

Laser show /Weibo @Chunwan

The laser show also wowed audiences.

Martial arts show /Weibo @Chunwan

And how can we forget the martial arts performance?

Opera show /Weibo @Chunwan

The opera show featured a contrast between China's East and West regions.

The Lantern Festival Gala also dedicated some time to the country's intangible cultural heritages such as glove puppetry, from southeast China's Fujian Province and woodcut New Year paintings.

Hunan TV

The Hunan TV event has long been a strong competitor in the category, as the TV station boasts a range of variety shows.

In keeping with tradition, this year's gala featured a "battle" format, where entertainers were divided into two teams vying for ovations from the audience.

This year, the gala invited two stand-up comedians – former CCTV host Zhang Shaogang and author and producer Li Dan – from the popular talk show "Roast" to join the teams.

The two teams led the audience in participating in different games and battled the other to claim prizes for viewers.

Zhang Xiaofei (L) and Pan Yueming /Weibo @HunanTV

Rising celebrities also helped the gala's viewership. Young comedian Zhang Xiaofei teamed up with actor Pan Yueming to do a follow-up of her sketch at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Henry Lau (Up), Zhang Xincheng (L) and He Jiong /Weibo @HunanTV

Hunan TV's lead host He Jiong formed a band on stage with Chinese Canadian singer Henry Lau and actor Zhang Xincheng to perform a song.

Li Guyi (L) and Huo Zun /Weibo @HunanTV

Renowned singer Li Guyi, who every year wraps up the CCTV Spring Festival Gala with "Can't Forget Tonight," sang a song with the young singer Huo Zun.

Jiangsu TV

Jiangsu TV's gala was more like a giant karaoke show where singers made up the majority of the performers.

Singers made up the majority of the performers at the Jiangsu Lantern Festival Gala. /Weibo @JiangsuTV

Staff from the TV station said they selected viral songs from recent years that would let "audiences of all ages sing along."

Indeed, out of the 12 programs, eight were singing-related. And the singers included different age groups – from Cheung Ming-man who was born in the late 1950s to He Jie and Wang Sulong who were born in the 1980s.

The Jiangsu gala maybe not be very fancy, but it had the advantage of giving audience members an easy way to participate.