During the festival, such folk activities as Presenting Spring Festival couplets, Paper-cutting Show, Glutinous Rice-pounding Operation, Killing Pigs and other folk activities will be carried out in the misty Hongjiang district, farmhouses and other places; meanwhile, centralized sales of local products will be conducted. As the highlight of Hong Fu Hongjiang in the Spring Festival, the activity of “Dragon Show in Ancient City” will be held on the first day of the lunar new year. At that time, a dragon-inviting ceremony will be held in the “Half Coin” Theatre, and various dragon-playing teams will also hold street parades to celebrate the arrival of the Spring Festival. The 2nd Xiaoxiang Dragon Dance Show will be held on the second day of the lunar new year to carry out dragon dance competitions and bring wonderful shows to tourists and citizens.

During the Festival, the surprising performances in Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall will come unexpectedly. Besides dragon dance show, amateur actors will gather at the Ancient Shopping Mall to perform Beijing Opera and local operas brilliantly on the third day of the lunar new year; from the fourth to fifth day of the first lunar month, there will also be youth concerts and prayers for the Wealth God; and activities such as Guessing Lantern Riddles, Happiness of the Lantern Festival and Sending off Dragons will be held during the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The folk culture of Hongjiang Ancient Shopping Mall is abundant, and the customs such as Zagushi show, colorful dragon boats, burning grass dragons and worshiping Wealth God with a history of long time, have been handed down from generation to generation. And the Dragon and Lion Dance Show can be traced back to the reign of Kangxi(1654-1722) in Qing Dynasty, and Dragon Dance Show has become a traditional custom of Hongjiangers during the Spring Festival. In recent years, the traditional folk cultures in Hongjiang have been tapped and involved into cultural tourism well, upgrading the brands of cultural tourism for “Hongfu Hongjiang in Spring Festival”; therefore, the custom has been formed that people in Huaihua come to Hongjiang for entertainments, cultures and happiness in Spring Festival and also to this ancient city for worshiping Wealth God for happiness and good luck.

380-odd old buildings like clubhouses, banks, firms, foreign firms, workshops, shops, brothels, newspaper offices, opium-smoking houses and other ancient buildings in the Ming and Qing dynasties are now well preserved in Hongjiang Ancient Mall, a key national cultural heritage site as well as the national AAAA tourist scenic spot with a total area of more than 300,000 square meters, known as “China’s First Ancient Mall” and “Chinese Commercial Imperial Palace”. In recent years, Hongjiang Ancient Mall has been selected as the national nocturnal culture and tourism consumption agglomeration area, the provincial demonstration site of  intangible cultural heritage, the first ten cultural tourism towns in the province, and the “Hunan Internet Celebrity Tourism Scenic Spot”; besides, the mall has been recorded in the list of Yangtze River International Golden Tourism Belt. Hongjiang District has also successfully established a provincial-level global tourism demonstration zone and been approved as a key county of provincial quality tourism routes.

(Translated by Yang Sigui)