Embracing golden-season scenery and celebrating the National Day, Huaihua leveraged its unique mountain-and-river resources and rich, diverse cultural heritage throughout the 2026 National Day holiday. Centering on the theme of “a joint celebration of the nation and families”, it deepened the integration of culture and tourism. Linking diverse business forms including event-driven economy, intangible cultural heritage folk customs, nighttime consumption, rural leisure and museum-based experiences, Huaihua rolled out a host of immersive, scenario-oriented and mass-oriented holiday events. High-quality and abundant cultural-tourism offerings continuously energized the market. Visitors from across the country flocked to Wuxi, and the city’s cultural-tourism market enjoyed surging popularity, flourishing business and favorable public praise.

According to big-data modeling of mobile phone signaling from Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, up to October 7, Huaihua delivered an impressive cultural-tourism report card for the National Day holiday. The city received a total of 2.0451 million tourists, including 692,900 out-of-province tourists and 1.3522 million intra-province tourists. Forty accommodation establishments monitored by the provincial direct-report platform hosted 53,800 guests. Key tourist scenic spots and public cultural-tourism venues registered a combined visitor flow of 1.5508 million. The city-wide cultural-tourism market operated safely and steadily with visitor numbers climbing steadily.

Events draw visitor flows; trend-setting business forms fuel the holiday economy.

This National Day, Huaihua kept exploring the integration model of “events plus culture and tourism”. Brand-name events drew crowds, while special performances enriched consumption scenarios. The city converted event popularity and passenger flows into growth in cultural-tourism consumption, brimming the Wuxi landscape with vitality.

Competitive events unfolded across locations, creating differentiated holiday highlights. Yuanling County capitalized on the 2026 ICF Dragon Boat World Cup & Yuanling Traditional Dragon Boat Race, and rolled out supporting experiences such as street flash mob shows, night tours and traditional-style photo check-ins. The landmark event boosted cultural-tourism vitality across the whole county. Hongjiang City hosted a free-fighting tournament, whose fierce contests drew local residents and tourists and directly spurred nearby accommodation and catering consumption. Meanwhile, the Ancient Commercial Town of Hongjiang held a motorcycle carnival and cross-country races. Motorcycle enthusiasts nationwide gathered here. Motorcycle parades and cross-country races blended trendy sports culture with the time-honored charm of the millennium-old commercial town, painting a unique cultural-tourism scene for the National Day holiday.

Mass art events also dazzled audiences. The super joint village-song concert Huaihua Sings, Resounding Wuxi covered five competition zones: Mayang, Tongdao, Hecheng, Hongjiang and Zhijiang. Boasting strong local features and massparticipation appeal, it attracted over 600,000 participants both online and offline, becoming a grand art gala for all people. Special performances were staged non-stop. Huangyan Ecotourism Zone in Hecheng District presented the immersive live-action show Canyon Suppression Campaign and themed events for the Mountain Folk Song and Horn Call Festival, offering visitors fresh sightseeing experiences through real-scene interactions.

Intangible cultural heritage and folk customs take on new vitality; colorful local customs showcase Wuxi’s everyday charm.

Drawing on its unique condition as a multi-ethnic settlement, counties and county-level cities in Huaihua delved deep into intangible cultural heritage and folk custom resources. Traditional craftsmanship, ethnic songs and dances as well as local folk culture were brought into holiday scenarios. Time-honored intangible heritage stepped out of old lanes and got close to the public, filling the cultural-tourism market with rich everyday charm.

Nuo-mask parade galas were held on Chenzhou Ancient Street, with Chenhe High-tone Opera and local ethnic dances performed in succession, creating a strong immersive folk-custom ambience. Xuefeng Mountain Cableway and Shanbei Huayao Terraced Fields in Xupu County entered the golden autumn harvest season. Fengxiang Yao Village hosted a Huayao intangible-heritage carnival, where terraced-field autumn scenery set off ethnic customs. The Chenxi Earthenware Intangible Heritage Base opened hands-on experience programs, which proved hugely popular among family tourists for their high practicality. Tongdao Dong Autonomous County held the Hunan-Guangxi-Guizhou Ethnic Grand Parade, vividly demonstrating the cultural landscape of multi-ethnic integration in the border area of the three provinces. A series of Dong-ethnic folk-custom experience activities were carried out at Huangdu Dong Cultural Village, Yutou Ancient Dong Village and Wanfo Mountain Scenic Area in Tongdao. These down-to-earth, culturally-rooted folk events allowed visitors to immerse themselves in Huaihua’s local customs and cultural origins.

Diverse pan-regional travel options, all mountains, waters, towns and villages become ideal vacation destinations.

During the National Day holiday, all-for-one tourism thrived across Huaihua. Red-theme study tours, rural getaways and nighttime leisure activities gained momentum simultaneously. A wide array of age-inclusive cultural-tourism products met tourists’ diverse vacation demands.

Red-theme study tours remained popular. Daiyuan Cultural Tourism Scenic Area in Mayang presented joint exhibitions of cultural relics and intangible heritage as well as red-themed cultural-and-creative product displays. Based on real historical materials, the exhibits recalled extraordinary years, fostering visitors’ devotion to home and country in this “walking classroom”. Multiple red-themed venues across the city received steady streams of study-tour visitors, and red-themed culture enriched the holiday experience.

Night-time cultural-tourism offerings were upgraded. Longxi Night Market in Xinhuang opened to great fanfare, featuring special performances such as flying fairy dance shows and intangible-heritage iron-fire displays, whose vivid folk-custom light-and-shadow effects drew crowds of onlookers. Yushuwan Commercial Complex in Hecheng District launched immersive National Day carnival activities. Its abundant interactive experiences made it a hit check-in spot for urban night-time leisure. The Ancient Commercial Town of Hongjiang rolled out the “Great Food Gathering” market, assembling intangible-heritage snacks and cultural-and-creative handicrafts. Coupled with NPC-led night tours and scenario-based study-tour programs, it unlocked sustained vitality for the night-time economy of the century-old commercial town. The immersive night tour Ode to Blessed Land was performed as scheduled. Huaihua Grand Theatre staged the acrobatics special Wonderful Chinese Acrobatics and ethnic concert Listening to Xiaoxiang. High-quality art performances enriched nighttime entertainment choices.

Rural leisure became a top travel choice. Xiafeiyun Orchard in Mayang County held the Golden-autumn Harvest Celebration · Cloud Orchard Food Carnival. Jingping Ancient Village in Zhongfang County hosted a folk-music festival and National Day check-in garden parties. Mass art shows were put on at Gulou Square and Flying Tiger Sports Center in Zhijiang. Yanjiao Dong Village and Feishan Scenic Area in Jingzhou Miao and Dong Autonomous County organized mountain-camping National Day celebrations. Mountain camping, orchard fruit-picking and slow-paced ancient-village tours won wide favor among tourists.

Cultural institutions benefit the public; cultural empowerment elevates travel experience.

Museums, cultural centers and other public cultural venues at all levels across the city stayed open during the holiday. With rich cultural events and thoughtful public services, they infused strong humanistic depth into holiday tourism.

Huaihua Museum created the Explore Huaihua Museum: National Day Fair intangible-heritage handicraft flea market, featuring intangible-heritage handicrafts, pottery-making experiences, local delicacies and cultural-and-creative goods. Combining appreciation and interaction, it emerged as a new popular urban check-in site. Cultural centers and libraries in all counties and county-level cities concurrently organized public-welfare activities including intangible-heritage handicraft workshops, traditional Chinese culture classes, popular-science experiences and rural touring performances. Accessible participatory cultural programs such as Dong brocade weaving, lusheng dances, Dong grand chorus, earthenware crafting and flower-lantern opera shows enabled tourists to appreciate the cultural lineage of Wuxi amid their journeys.

Beneficial policies stimulate vitality; the whole-region consumer market brims with warmth.

Targeting holiday consumption peaks, local authorities in Huaihua rolled out public-benefit measures including ticket discounts, group-buy bargains, check-in gifts and package deal reductions, delivering tangible benefits to tourists and stimulating consumption across the full chain of “dining, accommodation, travel, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment”. Hemingzhou rolled out music flash-mob shows and free popcorn for check-in visitors to draw crowds. For hot spots including Peace Lake Night Cruise, Taohuaxi Camping Base and the Metaverse Science & Technology Experience Hall, Zhijiang implemented time-limited discounts, couple offers and group-buy deductions. Jinjiang Yuanyang Island Dragon Boat Islet in Mayang launched a special 29.9-yuan dragon-boat-riding experience, attracting large numbers of tourists with its high cost-performance. Business operators in Xupu, Jingzhou, Chenxi, Xinhuang and Hongjiang introduced matching preferential benefits. These public-benefit initiatives cut travel costs, enhanced sightseeing experiences and fueled the continuous growth of cultural-tourism consumption city-wide.

Magnificent mountains and rivers bear witness to the profound affection of Wuxi. During the 2026 National Day holiday, with ample cultural-tourism supplies, profound humanistic experiences and vibrant consumption scenarios, Huaihua painted a holiday picture featuring booming visitor flows and flourishing business forms.

(Translated by Tian Xia)