After the performance at the Changdian Temple Fair, two dragon lanterns of the Grand Canal in Tongzhou "retired honorably" a few days ago and were invited to the National Museum to "live out their old age". The dragon lanterns of the Grand Canal in the county towns of Tongzhou are unique traditional dragon lanterns with a history of more than 300 years. The dragon heads of general dragon lanterns are round, while the dragon heads of the county dragon lanterns are square. This is because Tongzhou is the northern starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, so the county dragon lanterns combine the characteristics of the northern and southern dragon lanterns to form their unique style. The two dragon lanterns collected by the National Museum are divided into 7 sections, 17 meters long, and only one dragon head weighs more than ten kilograms. At present, the members of the dragon lantern performance team are making new dragon lanterns. The keel and tail have been completed, and the new dragon lanterns can be "put into service" at the end of the month. The 72-year-old deputy team leader Feng Nailiang is worried that the artists will gradually age and the Grand Canal Dragon Lantern will face the danger of extinction. In order to save the Grand Canal Dragon Lantern, the Municipal Bureau of Culture has included it as one of the first 10 ethnic folk cultural protection projects in the city, and has invested funds to take a series of protection measures such as training inheritors.