Cultural, tourism events across China spark consumption growth

Local authorities across China are using their unique resources to continuously create new cultural and tourism experiences, attracting visitors for sightseeing and recreation.

The tourism department in north China's Hebei Province started a Hong Kong-Hebei cultural tourism week, launching a series of events in Hong Kong, including artistic performances and demonstrations of intangible cultural heritage.

The activities are aimed to provide the residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) with a deeper understanding of the charm of Hebei's culture and tourism.

"Today, I am very excited to be in Hong Kong. I brought these exhibits to allow residents of Hong Kong to experience traditional culture, which makes me feel very proud," said Ma Fuliang, a filigree inlay artist, also a national intangible cultural heritage (ICH) bearer.

"I have heard that the ancient town of Zhengding is very beautiful. I would like to go and see it," said a Hong Kong resident.

Leveraging its ice and snow resources, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has combined sports events with ice and snow tourist attractions and hosted an ice marathon on Wednesday, the first day of 2025, attracting over 2,000 marathon enthusiasts from across the country.

At the same time, a self-driving event was launched on Saturday in Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia in north China, bringing together thousands of vehicles from across the nation.

During the opening ceremony, parade formations and artistic performances were presented to offer a visual feast for the spectators.

"This is our second year coming here, and we are participating in the second race. It has been very enjoyable," said Guo Junke, a participant from Beijing.

Up to date, Xilingol League has received over one million visitors from across the country this winter.

Cultural, tourism events across China spark consumption growth

Yiwu, the eastern Chinese city known as "the world's supermarket," achieved a record foreign trade value of 173.56 billion yuan (25.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of 2026, a significant 52.8 percent increase over the same period of the previous year.

In the two-month period, the growth rates of both imports and exports of the city exceeded 50 percent.

In the January-February period, Yiwu's global trade partnerships expanded to include 222 other countries and regions, adding nine more compared to the same period of last year.

Africa became Yiwu's largest trade market during the period, with trade to the continent rising by 84.7 percent year on year, accounting for 20.4 percent of the city's total foreign trade value.

Among the major trading partners, Yiwu experienced the fastest import and export growth with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which surged by 99 percent year on year. Additionally, Yiwu's imports from and exports to Latin America and the EU grew by 34 percent and 64.6 percent year on year, respectively.

In the first two months of 2026, the city's trade with other countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 124.43 billion yuan (18 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 59.5 percent year on year, accounting for over 70 percent of Yiwu's total foreign trade value for the same period.

China's Yiwu sees 52.8 percent year-on-year increase in trade in January-February