Holiday consumption booms ahead of National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival holidays

With two major holidays falling nearly back-to-back on this year's calendar, China's cultural and tourism market is witnessing an upsurge.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional holiday celebrated with lanterns and mooncake treats, runs this year from 25 to 27. That puts just three workdays between the festival and China's week-long National Day holiday, which kicks off from October 1.

This unusually long window for autumn travel has stimulated a strong appetite for travel among the public, prompting popular tourism towns and scenic spots to launch featured cultural activities.

The city of Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province, known for its scenic views of the ocean and enticing sea cruises, has launched upgraded travel experiences that feature in-depth cultural stories and diverse interactive sessions.

At the city's immersive cultural theme park known as "Encounter Minnan", visitors can watch three major homecoming-themed performances and experience immersive activities centered on "qiaopi," a unique form of mail that served as a bond between overseas Chinese and their family members back in China more than a century ago. The shows transform the time-honored culture of transnational remittance letters into vivid, participatory and emotionally resonant cultural experiences for both residents and visitors.

"The atmosphere feels really good. We just had interactions that fully embody local characteristics and leave a deep impression," said a tourist.

In Huadian City, northeast's Jilin Province, the Gold Museum has officially opened to the public. Located at the Jiapigou Gold Mine, the museum draws on the mine's rich history and combines historical collections with cultural displays, offering visitors an immersive experience.

"This exhibition covers the period from over 4,000 years ago to the present day, providing a detailed account of the culture and history surrounding gold," a young visitor commented.

Meanwhile, the 2026 Guangzhou Dim Sum Season officially kicked off in Guangzhou City, south China's Guangdong Province. A lifestyle market has been set up at the city's Taikoo Wharf, where time-honored local eateries and highly rated restaurants showcase their innovative dim sum creations, allowing tourists to taste authentic Cantonese pastries and partake in intangible cultural heritage on site.

Holiday consumption booms ahead of National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival holidays

In a special series on the Long March, a landmark event in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Huajiang Gorge Bridge in southwest China's Guizhou Province, the world's highest bridge, has demonstrated how the Long March spirit lives on.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Long March, a crucial turning point in Chinese history which contributed to the founding of the People's Republic of China.

In the special series Marching On, China Global Television (CGTN) correspondents retrace the original route of the Long March across several provinces to find out that the Long March's enduring spirit—marked by determination and resilience—continues to inspire generations of Chinese people as they pursue better lives through innovation and hard work.

In the first episode of the series, a CGTN correspondent kicks off the journey across rugged hills and river‑carved valleys in Guizhou Province, a key region along the Long March route. He stands in awe atop the Huajiang Gorge Bridge, completed in 2025 by local engineers and workers. With a deck soaring 625 meters above the river, the bridge is a testament to the enduring spirit of overcoming adversity.

The remarkable transformation of mountainous Guizhou—with a nearly twelvefold increase in per capita GDP over the past two decades—reflects the enduring legacy of the Long March spirit, which remains evident in all aspects of contemporary Chinese life.

The Red Army soldiers, forerunners of today's People's Liberation Army, began their strategic retreat in 1934. They endured raging rivers, snow-capped mountains, and vast grasslands—some marching as far as 12,500 kilometers—before finally reaching Yan'an in Shaanxi Province in 1936, where they established the CPC headquarters before the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

From barriers to bridges: unpacking Long March legacy in Guizhou