Recently, good news came from the Department of Culture and Tourism of Hunan Province: Mayang Changshouli Block has been selected as one of the third batch of provincial-level night cultural and tourism consumption clusters. Located in the core area of the County seat, the cluster has an overall planned area of about two square kilometers, occupying a pivotal position in the county’s cultural and tourism development. Relying on Mayang’s prestigious title of “Hometown of Longevity” and its profound Miao folk cultural heritage, the cluster has deeply explored local distinctive cultural resources, built a full-chain night cultural tourism consumption system, and achieved mutual empowerment between cultural inheritance and economic development.
As night falls, the banks of the Jinjiang River are brilliantly lit up, blending Miao ethnic customs with the vibrancy of daily life. With its unique geographical advantages, distinctive cultural and tourism themes and diverse consumption formats, the cluster has injected strong impetus into the integrated development of regional culture and tourism.
“We are rooted in the fertile soil of ‘Hometown of Longevity’ and Miao culture, with the theme of ‘Longevity · Health Preservation · Folk Customs · Dragon Boat’. We have developed three major features: dragon boat experiences, hot spring health preservation, and longevity delicacies, and built six consumption systems," introduced Zhang Gongmei, member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy director of the Mayang Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio, Television and Sports. In Mayang, visitors can personally experience the passion of Jinjiang dragon boat races, enjoy the health-preserving charm of hot spring, and savor authentic Miao longevity delicacies.
Fushou Square, the Miao Culture Corridor and other venues have become ideal places for citizens and tourists to experience ethnic culture. More than 200 food stalls and specialty merchants offer a dazzling array of local distinctive snacks such as Mayang goose, sour pickled cabbage fish, handmade noodles and rice crust. In addition, the diverse layout of high-quality brand restaurants and trendy tea drink shops caters to the taste buds of different tourists.
A series of nighttime cultural performances during holidays have showcased distinctive resources such as Miao intangible cultural heritage, dragon boat culture and longevity culture in Changshouli. The breathtaking intangible cultural heritage performance of “iron flower splashing” sees molten iron scattered into a sky full of stars, allowing visitors to directly feel the unique charm of traditional intangible cultural heritage. Meanwhile, folk performances including Panhu sacrificial rituals and Miao songs and dances are held regularly, and modern cultural tourism projects such as water curtain light and shadow shows are staged one after another.
In the future, Mayang will continue to deepen the construction of the Changshouli night cultural and tourism consumption cluster, continuously optimize the format layout, enrich cultural activities and improve service quality. It will further polish the cultural tourism brand of “Longevity County”, make the night scenery on both banks of the Jinjiang River more charming and the vitality of the Miao hometown more intense, continue to lead the night economy in western Hunan, and write a new chapter in the high-quality integrated development of culture and tourism.
(Translated by Yang Hong)