Towns with charming ancient streets and intangible cultural heritage have mesmerized holidaymakers across China during the week-long National Day holiday.
The National Day holiday period, which runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7, is a peak travel and tourism season in China.
As ancient towns become popular destinations for visitors, local governments across the country have staged intangible-cultural-heritage-themed events to enthrall tourists with immersive cultural experiences.
In southwest China's Sichuan Province, streets of Luocheng Ancient Town, which still retains the cultural charm of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties have been adorned with national flags, exuding a strong festive atmosphere.
The splendid performance of the intangible cultural heritage, such as the kirin lantern dance, a traditional Chinese cultural practice involving elaborate lantern displays and dance performances, martial arts, and Sichuan opera, have attracted numerous tourists.
"I have a quite good impression of this place. It has the rustic charm," said a tourist.
In east China's Jiangxi Province, the tea-picking opera fascinated tourists. The interaction with players and the role-playing not only allowed visitors to have a deeper understanding of the story, but also gave them a chance to experience the beauty of traditional opera.
"The performance has a lot of interaction with visitors, so that we have much participation in it. Hope that we can see more and more folk cultural programs with our own cultural features in the future," said Lin Wei, a visitor.
The Shuidong ancient street, a thousand-year-old ancient town in Xuanzhou District of east China's Anhui City, has been bustling with tourists seeking leisure time during the National Day holiday.
Activities such as honey-date making, shadow puppetry, land-boat dance, sparked laughters and cheerful moments.
The Zhuxi ancient town in Yancheng, a city in east China's Jiangsu Province, provided visitors a tapestry of cultural and tourism activities.
The themed parade brought visitors back to ancient time. The performance of chime bells and bamboo flutes were pleasing to the ear. The magic drama that cleverly integrates classical literature with modern magic gave visitors a fresh experience.
"The activities held in the Zhuxi ancient town are new for kids. They have preserved the charm of traditional culture while incorporating modern elements," said Bai Hailu, a visitor.
Ancient towns across China allure holidaymakers during National Day holiday
Ancient towns across China allure holidaymakers during National Day holiday
China will continuously build a robust domestic market to bolster its economy and counter external challenges in accordance with the requirements and arrangement from the annual Central Economic Work Conference, which put domestic demand at the forefront of eight key tasks for next year's economic work, according to experts.
The tone-setting conference was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday in which the Chinese leadership decided priorities for the economic work in 2026.
Over the past four years, domestic demand has contributed an average of 86.4 percent to China's economic growth, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.
"The top priority is to expand domestic demand as the key reason for this is that our demand is relatively weak. The first step here is figuring out how to increase consumption," said Chen Binkai, vice president of Central University of Finance and Economics.
Consumption has continued to play a leading role in the country's economic growth this year. In the first three quarters, final consumption expenditure contributed 53.5 percent to economic growth, an increase of 9 percentage points compared to the whole of last year.
The annual Central Economic Work Conference proposed that in 2026, a special campaign to boost consumption will be implemented in depth, the supply of high-quality goods and services will be expanded, policies on new and emerging industries will be optimized, unreasonable restrictions in the consumption field will be eliminated, and the potential of service consumption will be unleashed.
"Previously, much of the consumption we have encouraged is for manufactured goods. However, the growth rate of our service sector is not as ideal as that of the manufacturing sector. Therefore, increasing some investment to encourage consumption in the service sector may play a better role in stabilizing growth and expanding domestic demand," said Huang Qunhui, a researcher of the Institute of Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Experts said that income is the primary factor determining consumption, and only by increasing residents' disposable income, can their consumption capacity be improved.
They also said that the conference, while emphasizing the promotion of consumption, also clearly pointed out the need to formulate and implement a plan to increase the income of urban and rural residents.
"The Third Plenary Session [of the 20th CPC Central Committee] mentioned the need to increase the proportion of residents' income, specifically the proportion of labor compensation within that income. The Fourth Plenary Session [of the 20th CPC Central Committee] further proposed implementing a specific income-increasing plan for urban and rural residents. Of course, consumption is not solely an income issue. We need to strengthen basic public services and improve our social security fund. If these issues are further improved and optimized, and residents have higher incomes, they will be more willing to spend more on consumption, especially on development-oriented consumption," said Huang.
Expanding domestic demand remains top priority for China's economic work in 2026: experts
