With public spaces becoming popular destinations for tourists, over a hundred museums, art galleries, and performance centers organized celebration events for the Spring Festival. Beijing’s museums alone received nearly 2.4 million visitors during the eight-day holiday from January 28 to February 4.
“Guo Nian, Exhibition of the Spring Festival” organized by the Chinese Traditional Culture Museum (CTCM) was one of them. It opened in December and will run till early March, presenting more than 120 intangible cultural heritage items related to the Spring Festival for visitors from all over the world to experience the Chinese New Year atmosphere.
Over 300 pieces of artwork display the national and provincial-level intangible cultural heritages, reminding viewers of the unique festival customs of different regions.
A snake mascot and a robot welcome visitors on the opening day of the Changdian temple fair in Beijing, on January 29, 2025.
A Beijing Special
One area of the exhibition is illuminated by lanterns from all over the country, showcasing the atmosphere of the Lantern Festival. The most popular one seems to be the huge lantern at the center of the hall, shaped like a dragon boat.
It is a handicraft from Yueqing, a city in Zhejiang Province in east China. The complex production process combines woodwork, oil painting, dragon lamps, and paper carvings. The boat’s dragon-shaped head and tail sway, and the hundreds of dolls on board also move, providing a dynamic feast for the eyes. People in Yueqing celebrate the Lantern Festival with the dragon lantern dance, hoping for good weather and a bountiful harvest in the new year.
In another hall, visitors queued up to admire New Year paintings, which combine woodblock printing with ink painting. Zhao Liping, an inheritor of Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings, and ink wash artist Zhao Chufan were present, giving a demonstration of their art. Parents and children flocked to them to acquire New Year paintings and learn the skills.
In addition, nine troupes from Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei put up representative folk performances such as the lion dance, dragon dance, and shadow plays in the hall and outside the museum. Visitors admired the performances and went on clicking their phones in a frenzy to take souvenir photos.
“The exhibition aims to spread traditional Chinese culture among more visitors, especially the connotation and spiritual power of the Spring Festival,” Chang Huixue, a researcher at the CTCM, said.
The Liulichang Cultural Street looks festive as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, on January 22, 2025.
Traditional Temple Fairs
When a senior Beijing resident visited the Changdian temple fair with her son and grandson, the restored atmosphere brought her a sense of nostalgia. She recalled that in her childhood, people enjoyed snacks and performances of windmills, diabolo, acrobatics, and cross-talks along the street to celebrate the Spring Festival.
During the Spring Festival holiday, Beijing hosted nearly 3,000 activities featuring intangible cultural heritage. Traditional events such as temple fairs, lantern festival activities, and garden events incorporated new technology, cultural and creative crafts, and ice and snow sports for visitors to celebrate the Year of the Snake innovatively while enjoying the charm of traditional culture.
According to data from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, during the holiday, the city received nearly 17.6 million tourists, achieving a total tourism consumption of nearly RMB 28.7 billion, or an average per capita consumption of RMB 1,630.
Temple fairs are an important part of Spring Festival celebrations. The Changdian temple fair, held near the iconic Tian’anmen Square, is among the first batch of traditions to be declared a national intangible cultural heritage. The fair dates back to the Jiajing period (1521-1566) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). From the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), it began to be held mainly in the Liulichang Cultural Street, a hub of shops selling calligraphy, paintings, and porcelains.
At this year’s fair, all the shops launched their New Year products and activities. Zhang Zhongqiang, an inheritor of Beijing colored sculpture, said he had designed new types of Tu’er Ye, a folk art of making figurines of the rabbit god, a symbol of old Beijing. He also made special items related to the Year of the Snake.
In the store of Rong Bao Zhai, one of China’s most famous painting and calligraphy brands, waterprint woodcut, an ancient Chinese carved woodblock printing technique first used by Rong Bao Zhai, was a prime attraction. To promote the traditional culture, the brand launched a series of hands-on activities. Visitors could print auspicious words or snake patterns on red envelopes or scrolls.
The China Bookstore hosted immersive shows and launched digital games. Visitors could learn the history of ancient book restoration techniques online and have a go at trying out some of the steps themselves virtually.
Along with the innovative display of intangible cultural heritage, visitors also enjoyed watching exhibits of new technologies. A robot at the Fire God temple dished out a pancake in about three minutes. Robotic dogs bowed, shook hands, and did backflips in the street. Another robot was busy writing the Chinese character for good fortune – 福 (fu) – with snake elements in one minute. Robot waiters served tea and coffee.
The integration of traditional culture and new technology at the Changdian temple fair gave visitors a rich experience, evoking both childhood memories and crafting an experience in the unique Beijing style. A senior Beijing resident, who visited the fair with her son and grandson, said it brought her a sense of nostalgia. She recalled how in her childhood, people also enjoyed snacks and acrobatics, cross-talks and other performances at such occasions.
In addition to the Changdian temple fair, traditional temple fairs in other parks also saw large crowds. Nearly two dozen fairs held across Beijing, ranging from lantern fairs to technology fairs, attracted over 4 million visitors in total. 
This article is based on reports by media outlets including Beijing Daily and Beijing Radio & Television Station.
