As part of this year's Yuyuan Lantern Festival, the Bund Finance Center in Shanghai was lit up by vibrant lantern installations on Feb 1, featuring diverse products and activities to immerse visitors in the Chinese New Year vibe.

This is the first time that the highly anticipated annual celebration has been extended beyond Yuyuan Garden Malls, which was lit up last week. Running through March 3, the festival also covers Gucheng Park, Middle Fangbang Road, Fuyou Road and the Bund. While the lantern installations at Yuyuan present primarily folk cultures, the ones in other areas are more modern and trendy.

At the Bund Finance Center, the lantern installations feature a special collaboration with Chinese pop culture giant Pop Mart. At the Chinese New Year Garden Fair, installations blending the toymaker's phenomenally popular IPs can be found across the center.

The main palace lantern carousel installation decorated with Pop Mart's 12 classic IPs is set up at the center's North Plaza, accompanied by a smaller Labubu lantern installation. The Twinkle Twinkle is placed at the center's Sky Garden with a dreamy spring celebration installation, which is incorporated into the city's landmark skyline along the Huangpu River.

At the South Mall, the fan-favorite Molly installation stands at the entrance with a drum dance for fortune, with other characters such as Skullpanda, Baby Molly and Hirono spreading across the floors to wow visitors. On the first floor, the Pop Mart's golden gallop themed pop-up store was immediately packed with global enthusiasts on its opening.

Tian Shuyue, a 27-year-old marketing specialist from Henan province and working in Shanghai for about five years, was celebrating her birthday exactly on Sunday, with a Twinkle Twinkle blind box figure for herself.

"Twinkle Twinkle is so cute! Their eyes are tiny and lovely, and I do love them very much," said Tian.

"They are so popular now and it is often very hard to get one. So I'm very happy to get one here today!"

While Tian rushes to check out the Twinkle Twinkle lantern installation, Frans-Jan van Meer, a 50-year-old from the Netherlands, is busy bagging some figures for his kids at the store.

Making his first visit on business to China, van Meer has been exploring the city with city walks since arrival. It is a coincidence for him to reach the center and come across the pop-up store, where he recognized the iconic character Labubu.

"It (Pop Mart) has also been in Europe and my daughter has one (Labubu) at home. When I saw the pop-up store, I said I had to buy something for my kids," said Meer with a smile.

Meer has two daughters, ages 10 and 5, both are Pop Mart fans. He bought two blind boxes for them each, one Labubu and the other one from the new Golden Gallop series figures.

"I like the new series. It is more Chinese and exotic for me, as we would not make it like this in Europe … I walk around here and I think I should be here with my kids. It is clean, modern and nicely decorated with lanterns, the skyline and everything. It is really amazing," he added, saying he hoped to bring his kids next time thanks to China's "convenient and helpful" visa-free policy.

In addition to popular products, the festival showcasing the Chinese New Year vibe is immersing global visitors in the nation's culture and life experiences.

Manuel Enrique and Gabriel Ruiz, content creators coming from Los Angeles, are also enjoying their first China trip. Loving the Chinese culture, they particularly highlight the sense of security that local residents have, citing the ease in bringing a camera and freely recording their travel experience without fear of being robbed.

"It is so modern, convenient and everybody is so friendly. It is really cool to see how diverse it's still in one country and culture. It is a great place," said Ruiz, who bought a cap with Chinese elements as a souvenir.

"The whole Chinese culture or Asian culture is getting more popular and global as I see, in movies and everything. You can also see it more and more in Europe, and it's good thing," said Meer.