In east China’s Taizhou City, Spring Festival festivities are in full swing
TAIZHOU, China , Jan. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Not long after the beginning of 2023, the moment has come to say goodbye to the past and embrace the future for Chinese people. Since January 22, China has entered the Year of the Rabbit, a year of vitality in the lunar calendar. The week-long period from January 21 to January 27 is China’s 2023 Spring Festival holiday, which is the most festive period of the lunar year for Chinese people.
A view of Ziyang Street, an old street in Linhai City, Taizhou.
Like Christmas, the Spring Festival is the most lively annual festival for Chinese people. In addition to the big family reunion, there are also traditional local customs, delicious food full of regional characteristics, impressive central and local Spring Festival gala performances and diversified folk culture activities. A series of festive elements combine to form a happy and auspicious Chinese New Year.
China has a large land area and boasts abundant resources. In the national celebration of the festival, in addition to the Spring Festival evening meal, pasting couplets, sending greetings and other common customs, each place has its own unique ways to usher in the lunar new year. If one wants to experience as many aspects of the Chinese New Year as possible at one stop, Taizhou City in eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province is the place to go.
Official statistics show that Taizhou Ancient City received 712,600 visits during the Spring Festival holiday, including 138,000 visits on the fourth day of the first lunar month, a new daily record high. The total number of tourist visits during the holiday ranked second among the 5A-level scenic spots of ancient towns in China, second only to Lijiang Ancient Town in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
Home to many mountains and to the sea, Taizhou enjoys a unique geographical position, so the Spring Festival culture here combines the elements of both inland and coastal areas. As a city in the central area of the Yangtze River Delta, the local economy is being developed. During the Spring Festival, various activities were staged to add to the festive atmosphere.
Food is at the center of China’s Spring Festival, and Taizhou’s cuisine will live up to diners’ expectations.
Compared to many places in the north whose residents eat dumplings during the Spring Festival, Taizhou residents eat more rice cakes. This pastry made from rice or glutinous rice has the auspicious meaning of long life for the elderly, longer growth for children and better development for young and middle-aged people.
Like rice cakes, many delicious foods in Taizhou are made of glutinous rice as the main raw material, which gives people a kind of glutinous feeling, such as plum blossom cake, wheat cake, orange cake and mochi made with oriental blueberry leaves. Hehe burritos, which can wrap various ingredients, are also the special cuisine of Taizhou during the Spring Festival. Costal Taizhou does not lack seafood, and all kinds of blue crabs, yellow croaker and mudskippers are popular local Chinese New Year purchases.
To learn more about Taizhou’s development this year, one can watch the annual local Spring Festival Gala on TV or online. This year’s gala continued to tell Taizhou stories via local residents, with 20 programs such as song and dance, cross-talk, skit, Yue Opera, magic and acrobatics. These impressive performances covered all aspects of Taizhou’s development in the past year. For example, Taizhou was named one of the happiest cities in China for the seventh time, the S1 line of the Taizhou Municipal Railway was officially opened to traffic, the Common Prosperity Workshop helped farmers increase their income, and the city cooperated to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, according to Global Communication Center of Hehe Culture.
In Taizhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Hall, the local folk culture and ancient customs are well combined, allowing people to taste the profound Spring Festival cultural festival. One can learn about shell carving in Yuhuan City, Taizhou, and try to make a beautiful “Blessing” – pendant with shells. While learning about the characteristics of Taizhou embroidery, you can try making an embroidered rabbit bag.
Lion dancing and hanging lanterns are ancient customs in many places in China. The Huangsha Lion Dance in Taizhou is entrusted with the expectations of the working people for a better future. Performers will go from town to town to perform the lion dance from Chinese New Year’s Eve to the second day of the month of February, bringing good luck to the local people, reducing calamities and sharing blessings. Xianju County’s boneless lanterns have a history of more than a thousand years, and red lanterns made with their unique skills can create a unique festive atmosphere for the Spring Festival.
In addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala and enjoying folk customs, another activity in the holiday is going to various fairs, where food, drink and entertainment abound. This Spring Festival, Taizhou organized a lively distinctive cultural tourism market, combined with local cultural tourism resources.
In the Central CBD Square of Hehe Park in Jiaojiang District, Taizhou City, one could enjoy band performances, watch open-air movies and taste authentic specialties. In Luqiao District, Taizhou City, an old commercial street invited provincial and municipal famous food shops and special snacks to entertain visitors.
Ziyang Street, an ancient street in Linhai City, focused on Song Dynasty culture and drew lessons from the entertainment life of Song people to hold various activities such as fairs, stage performances and Song clothing experience. Meanwhile, the cultural experience has been enhanced by digital technology, and the intangible culture and various handmade products have been integrated into the fair, so that the Song Dynasty culture is visible, meaningful, experienceable and consumable.
Taizhou is not as cold in winter as northern cities in China, and it is also a famous tourist destination, attracting many locals and tourists to spend the holidays. This year, Taizhou introduced a preferential policy to favor visitors, offering free first-stop tickets to 74 tourist attractions in the city during the week-long holiday.
In Taizhou, one can climb Tiantai Mountain and enjoy the frost covered with snow at the main peak. One can walk into the Guoqing Temple, the birthplace of the Tiantai Sect of Chinese Buddhism, and enjoy the elegant fragrance of the Sui Dynasty plum blossom. One can go to Dachen Island and Jishan Island to see the romantic island scenery, and taste the delicious seafood. One can explore the streets of Taizhou to feel the profound Hehe culture. One can also visit many characteristic villages near the mountains and the sea in Taizhou, and taste local unique custom culture and farm life in the new era.
On the first day of the first lunar month, Shenxianju Scenic area welcomed the first sea of clouds in the Year of the Rabbit. The overlapping sea of clouds and peaks formed a beautiful ink painting scroll. Visitors walked in the clouds, as if they were in a fairyland.
Among the Twelve Earthly Branches in China, the clever and flexible rabbit represents dawn, spring, infinite strength and vitality. In the Year of the Rabbit, if people want to feel the vitality of China’s economy, they should come to Taizhou, because it is the birthplace of joint-stock cooperative economy and the most active area of private economy, known as the “capital of manufacture”.
Come on, in this Year of the Rabbit in the post-epidemic era, start a trip to Taizhou to experience Chinese culture, enjoy the beautiful scenery and feel China’s development.
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Caption: A view of Ziyang Street, an old street in Linhai City, Taizhou.
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