China's cultural, tourist market rebounds during Spring Festival holiday

Revived traditional culture

Traditional festive activities, hardly seen in many places over the past three years due to the epidemic, attracted millions of tourists seeking the nostalgic buzzing atmosphere of the Spring Festival.

According to official data, over 470 million visitors participated in around 110,000 public cultural events, including lantern shows and traditional folk opera performances nationwide.

In the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, Li Jie, manager of a dragon dance performance company, has been busy dealing with performance orders. Usually performed at festive celebrations, the dragon dance involves a team of dancers using poles to rhythmically move a giant dragon puppet.

"Our telephone line has been overloaded for performance orders," Li said. "We have sent over 200 performers to Beijing and other cities to generate festive vibes for the audiences."

Data from the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau showed that museums in Beijing recorded around 1 million tourist visits during the holiday, with the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China the top choices.

"The younger generation is celebrating the Spring Festival in more ways. The return of traditional festival activities embodies the people's fondness for traditional festival culture and their confidence in the culture," said Li Xiangzhen, associate professor of social sciences at Wuhan University.