The Spring Festival holiday officially ended, and Chengdu’s A-level tourist attractions received a total of 11.038 million visitors, an increase of 13.4% compared to 2023. Under the influence of activities such as temple fairs, lantern festivals, and light shows, ticket revenue reached 140 million yuan, an increase of 63.1% compared to 2023.

Behind these numbers, the recovery of the cultural and tourism market is evident, and the new features of cultural-led Spring Festival consumption are also visible. In Chengdu, traditional formats such as watching lanterns, visiting exhibitions, and enjoying Sichuan opera are constantly innovating, while the drone show that went viral on social media on New Year’s Eve and the booming format of Dongjiao Memory of Chengdu Media Group that attracts many “post-1900s” and the festive atmosphere of Yulin are also providing young people with new ways to celebrate the Spring Festival.

In the “2024 Spring Festival Holiday Travel Consumption Report” released by Tongcheng Travel on February 17, Chengdu became the second most popular destination and homestay city in the country during the Spring Festival. In the eyes of NBD, behind the “speeding” Chengdu, there is no lack of the guidance of the city’s spicy and hot culture AB side.

A-side: Bashu-style Chinese New Year, eye-catching and lucrative

During the past Spring Festival holiday, Chengdu launched the “1+16+N” series of key city cultural activities around the theme of “Flowers in the Brocade City, Thousands of New Sceneries”, with 1300 sessions of traditional folk customs and 1591 sessions of mass cultural activities, 21 kinds of citywalk street walking modes and a heat map.

From the west to the east of the city, the Bashu-style Chinese New Year was full of flavor. Browsing the social media platforms, netizens praised the fragrance along the Huanhua Creek, saying “Twenty miles of continuous fragrance, from Qingyang Palace to Huanhua Creek”, and when they saw the night tour of Jinjiang River, they exclaimed “In Chengdu, what Du Fu wrote in his poems is all true”.

Photo/Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum

During the Spring Festival, Chengdu’s sunshine was “generous”, in the west of the city, the spring scenery along the Huanhua Creek was infinitely beautiful, and the plum blossoms in Lu You’s writings were bright; in the east of the city, the new route of “Night Tour of Jinjiang River” from Dongmen Wharf to Wangjiang Wharf officially opened, and the scene of “Ships from the East Wu moored at the gate” in Du’s poems appeared.

The light show on the Hejiang Pavilion, the colorful night view of the Jinjiang River, and the out-of-the-circle dragon-themed live-action NPC “Dragon Nine Sons” brought 388,000 visitors to the night tour of the Jinjiang River, an increase of 373.41% compared to the same period in 2023.

Photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

Passing by Qintai Road, you can see the winding queues. They are not here for some famous “internet celebrity shop”, but for the immersive experience of Sichuan opera culture.

The 26-year-old Shufeng Yayun Opera House has prepared four performances a day for the public and tourists since the first day of the lunar new year, starting at 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm and 9 pm, each lasting about 90 minutes. On February 14, 500 tickets for the 11 am and 3 pm performances were sold out in advance.

Photo/Shufeng Yayun

Similarly, the Sanhua Sichuan Opera Troupe, located on Chengdu Fuqing Road, also performs four shows a day. “Coming to Chengdu, Sichuan opera will give you a different feeling.” Wu Yu, one of the heads of the Sanhua Sichuan Opera, said in an interview with the media.

The Chengdu Museum has been so popular that it has been described as "hard to get a ticket." In order to meet the public's demand, the museum has increased the number of daily reservations by 2,000. The exhibition "Splendid and Diverse: 16th-20th Century Collections of Art Treasures" takes visitors on a journey through the history of Eastern and Western aesthetics, and also allows tourists and locals to experience the diverse charm of Chengdu.

The Chengdu Museum of Art is also a popular destination. The exhibition "Heavenly Fun: Qi Baishi Immersive Digital Light and Shadow Art Exhibition" attracted 119,000 visitors.

In addition, visitors can also enjoy the combination of visiting exhibitions during the day and lantern fairs at night at the Wuhou Temple Chengdu Grand Temple Fair and the Jinsha Site Museum. With such a convenient "one-stop" experience, it's no wonder that netizens have said that it's "worth it."

B-side: New and colorful flavors of the New Year, a variety of “trendy tastes”

With the help of technology, the “trendy taste” is even stronger. On New Year’s Eve, when thousands of drones rose up by the Qinhuang Lake, the first thing that caught the eye was a golden dragon slowly flying, the audience was engrossed, holding their breath, either focusing on admiring the dragon, or taking out their phones to record.

After the “dragon soaring in the sky”, the “lotus blossom”, “Tianfu scroll”, “‘Hua Hua’ New Year greetings”, and “divine bird shining ‘peace’” were performed one after another. Before the performance was over, social media was swept by a wave of sharing drone performances from different angles that night.

Photo/Screenshot of Chengdu Fabu Video

 With the help of technology, the same expression can also be found everywhere in the “2024 Wuhou Temple Chengdu Temple Fair”.

Data show that from the first to the eighth day of the lunar new year, Dongjiao Memory’s total passenger flow exceeded 700,000, the highest daily passenger flow exceeded 100,000, and the number of visitors to the exhibition exceeded 200,000. Among them, more than 40% of the visitors were aged 20-35, and the “youthful vitality” atmosphere was overwhelming.

Photo/ Dongjiao Memory

Of course, Yulin, which is often “topping the list” among young people’s places, is not to be outdone.

First, the limited edition event - dragon year float parade, running through Yulin West Road to Yulin East Road, almost every parade point has wonderful performances, including the classic Sichuan opera face-changing and fire-spitting, lion dance and so on.

Photo/Wuhou Fabu

The Spring Festival holiday is over, but the New Year’s flavor and “trendy taste” are still there, wishing that the workers who have just suffered from “post-holiday syndrome” could go and experience it again. The reason is simple: because there are really many good “fun” places here that are worth experiencing.