With the Spring Festival approaching, Hunan Province will launch a wide variety of preferential cultural and tourism activities, enabling citizens to soak up the festive and jolly atmosphere of the traditional Chinese New Year.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) performances create festive atmosphere

On the theme of “returning to Hunan for the Spring Festival”, more than 300 ICH exhibitions and performances with various forms and rich content will be presented, showing the charming folk customs of Hunan during the Spring Festival.
Recently, the 2023 Hunan ICH New Year Fair kicked off. Hunan Cultural Center will organize the 2023 Hunan ICH Lantern Festival Gala.

All the 13 cities and 1 prefecture will plan such folk activities as guessing lantern riddles, paper-cutting, dragon and lion dancing. For example, Dehang Miao Village of Aizhai Town in Jishou City will hold the Hundred Lions Festival. Moreover, Shuibotang Village of Zhajiang Town in Hengyang County will present the lantern display.

Diversified products make choices richer

As China optimized the COVID-19 response measures, tourism consumption shows many new features and trends. In line with the market trend, Hunan will launch a series of short-distance tourism products like the Red tour, the self-driving tour and the rural tour during the Spring Festival holiday.

Relevant cities and prefecture jointly released 10 boutique tourist routes, including Changsha-Shaoyang-Hengyang Internet-famous site tour, Western Hunan world heritage site tour and Southern Hunan outdoor leisure tour.

Changsha has integrated the city’s cultural and tourism resources, and launched high-quality tourist routes, including 45 half-day tour attractions, 10 one-day tour routes and 4 two-day tour routes.

Zhangjiajie has released ten winter tourist routes like the peak forest tour, ice and snow hot spring tour as well as sports and fitness tour.

Shaoshan Tourist Area will hold the 2023 Shaoshan Lantern Festival Party and provide free admission tickets for tourists.

Some of the national key rural tourism villages in Hunan will also launch colorful folk activities.

Culture and tourism integration makes experience better

Cultural and tourism departments at all levels will organize over 220 cultural activities online and offline. Public cultural venues such as public libraries and cultural centers will be open to the public for free.

Hunan Library will carry out such activities as “listening to books during the New Year”, and Hunan Provincial Library of Juveniles and Children will hold the Spring Festival custom activities and the Spring Festival traditional Chinese food themed exhibition. Furthermore, Hunan Cultural Center will present the indoor folk concert and a series of Spring Festival concerts.

The museums and memorial halls will launch 104 exhibitions and festival themed activities like public education activities, folk custom performances, telling Red stories and guessing lantern riddles, providing a cultural feast for people.

Artistic performances strengthen people’s sense of happiness

“Our Festival” artistic activities will be carried out throughout Hunan, covering operas, songs and dances, acrobatics and shadow plays. More than 2,000 performers will participate in the activities, including more than 20 national first-level actors and over 80 national second-level actors. There are more than 100 performances around the Spring Festival, creating a festive and peaceful atmosphere for the Spring Festival.

In addition, a series of artistic performances will be staged in rural areas. In 2023, nearly 10,000 performances are expected to be presented in the province, and over 20,000 paintings and calligraphic works will be sent out for free, benefiting more than 4 million people.

Characteristic activities drive consumption growth

During the Spring Festival holiday, 20 provincial-level characteristic cultural and tourism towns will launch a series of cultural and tourism activities. Tongguan Cultural and Tourism Town in Wangcheng District will hold the fourth Tongguan Temple Fair. Nanyue Culture and Tourism Town in Nanyue District plans such activities as offering New Year gifts, the bamboo pole dancing and the bonfire party. Taohuayuan Town in Changde City will provide Huanlou wedding celebrations, traditional handicraft experience activities, etc.
Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism will issue a number of cultural and tourism consumption vouchers worth 20 million yuan through Ctrip and other OTA platforms, covering cultural venues, travel agencies, scenic areas, hotels, etc. Cultural and tourism enterprises will be encouraged to launch various preferential activities to accelerate market recovery.

In addition, various regions in Hunan have also organized a wide range of cultural and tourism activities. 
For instance, Zhangjiajie City has offered free admission tickets for all visitors and preferential policies for hotels, air tickets, high-speed train tickets, etc. Zhuzhou City has provided ticket price reduction and package discounts in many scenic areas like Fantawild, Emperor Yan’s Mausoleum and Huahu Valley. Therefore, citizens can enjoy a happy New Year.