Events featuring folklore, traditions held across China to boost tourism during Spring Festival

During the eight-day Spring Festival holiday that began on Tuesday, celebrations and festival events featuring folklore and traditions are being held across China to usher in the Year of the Snake and entertain tourists and visitors from near and far.

The annual Wuhou Shrine Grand Temple Fair in the southwestern city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province has delivered immersive experiences to visitors. As the Shrine commemorates one of China's best-known statesmen Zhuge Liang from China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD), dozens of themed lantern displays presenting classic stories of the era are bringing the history back to life.

In Zhangzhou City, east China's Fujian Province, visitors are treated with intangible cultural heritage performances and activities showcasing traditional Chinese craftsmanship. Alongside the exhibitions, restaurants and food stalls are also drawing large crowds to enjoy local delicacies that have been appreciated in the city for long.

In east China's Weihai City of Shandong Province, snowy coastal scenes and performances fusing local culture are attracting visitors to join local Spring Festival celebrations, with dragon and lion dances, gongs and drums adding to the festive vibes.

Local residents in Haoshan Town of east China's Jiangxi Province are celebrating the Chinese New Year with a spectacular dragon dance performed with a huge dragon structure which stretches for an astonishing 110 meters.

As a part of the local Spring Festival tradition, the dragon dance is to bring a joyful festive ambiance, and also a ritual to pray for favorable weather that leads to bountiful harvests throughout the Year of the Snake.

According to the leader of the dragon dance team, they are touring nearby villages to deliver performances for more than two weeks during the Spring Festival period.

Events featuring folklore, traditions held across China to boost tourism during Spring Festival

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday chaired a State Council executive meeting which mulled measures to boost consumption by accelerating the formation of new growth points in service consumption.

The meeting called for continued efforts to boost consumption by fully leveraging the integrated effects of different policies, linking improvement in people's wellbeing to consumption growth, and giving full play to the fundamental role of consumption in driving economic growth.

The meeting emphasized the importance of accelerating the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption, supporting new business forms, models, and scenarios, and increasing the supply of high-quality services.

Efforts should be made to improve the long-term mechanism for promoting consumption by formulating and implementing plans aimed at expanding consumption during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), increasing the income of urban and rural residents, speeding up the removal of unreasonable restrictive measures for consumption, and implementing the paid leave system. These measures are intended to boost people's consumption capacity and willingness to spend, promote the upgrading of consumption and industrial structures, and accelerate the building of a strong domestic market.

The meeting also made arrangements for actions to clear overdue payments to enterprises and ensure the issue of wage arrears for migrant workers is properly addressed. The meeting also deliberated and adopted a draft decision of the State Council on revising and abolishing some administrative regulations.

Chinese premier chairs meeting on promoting service consumption