The five-day Qiandao Lake Creative Lifestyle Week 2026 opened on Thursday evening in Chun'an County, east China's Zhejiang Province, kicking off a vibrant showcase designed to bolster the region's cultural and creative economy.
Anchored by a "Lakeside Industry Gala", the event blends traditional and emerging industries across themed island exhibition zones, offering visitors from home and abroad immersive, interactive experiences.
Visitors navigated seven distinct themed zones using specialized event passports, exploring Qiandao Lake's evolving creative landscape through digital cultural products, intangible heritage displays, and lake-and-mountain-inspired attractions.
The lifestyle week also placed a strong emphasis on traditional crafts and regional goods. Specialty markets and creative fairs drew steady crowds and stimulated local spending, providing attendees with a firsthand look at the area's cultural vitality.
"The event is amazing, absolutely amazing. There are lots of crafts, lots of different types of produce that I didn't even know about. So, it's really interesting. Life in Qiandao Lake is great, absolutely wonderful," said Aitrid Ann Bowie, a visitor from the United Kingdom.
For returning travelers, the event also highlighted the region's rapid progress.
"I think the region has really developed in the last two years. We are getting more excitement from the local county and the local province with how exciting and how much potential there is," said Teo Hongfu, a visitor from Singapore.
East China county holds lifestyle week to promote cultural, creative economy
The China International Import Expo (CIIE) offers foreign companies a key trade platform to showcase their products and expand sales in China, a business leader has said, noting that many Portuguese companies are keen to participate again this year. In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Bernardo Mendia, secretary-general of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the chamber promotes the CIIE widely in Portugal through its online platforms and at physical events held every year. "I'm aware that many Portuguese companies will participate. We as China-Portugal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we promote widely in Portugal through all our online platforms. We also organize every year, we try to organize or at least participate in a physical event in Portugal to promote China International Import Fair. And the AICEP, which is the Portuguese investment agency, every year they organize a group of Portuguese companies and they themselves are present there with their own booth," Mendia said.
"I believe this year will not be an exception, and so they will participate again. It's a quite relevant participation. We understand that this has a lot of interest for our companies, because it's a trade exhibition that is for foreign entities to showcase their products and make sales in China. So it's precisely what we need to do more, so it's perfect. And we are very happy that China is still continuing to organize and put so much importance in this exhibition in Shanghai," he said.
The ninth CIIE will be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10. Launched in 2018 as the world's first national-level expo dedicated to imports, the CIIE was designed to expand China's opening-up and turn its vast market into a shared opportunity for the world.
China's import expo offers foreign companies key platform to showcase products: chamber head
