The 18th China Zhoushan International Sand Sculpture Festival opened on Sept 9. This year's festival centers on creating a global village in keeping with the recently held G20 Summit.

The global village of sand is illuminated at night. [Photo from cztv.com]

Since mid-August, about 20 artists from a dozen countries including China, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain and the Czech Republic have gathered in the city of Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, to make sand sculptures of famous landmarks and cartoon characters.

Artists from across the world create sculptures of international landmarks. [Photo from cztv.com]

An area of about 200 m by 50 m in the city's Zhujiajian Scenic Area has been set aside for the festival, where 20,000 cubic meters of sand has been used to build 50 sand sculptures.

Artists work on their sculptures in Zhujiajian. [Photo from cztv.com]

The opening ceremony of this year's sand sculpture festival coincided with the Donghai Music Festival held on the same site. Visitors were able to marvel at the sculptures, listen to music and play in the sand.