During the Qingming Festival holiday this year, Haiyan’s culture and tourism markets experienced explosive growth. Popular tourist destinations saw daily visitor numbers exceed 10,000 like Ancient Shendang Town, Scenic Area of South-north Lake, and Liujia Compound. Leveraging the literary IP of author Yu Hua, Ancient Shendang Town achieved a breakthrough appeal, with more daily foot traffic surging compared to the same period last year. This springtime “feast”, blending culture and nature, is writing a new chapter in culture-tourism integrated development.

Literary landmarks rejuvenate the ancient town

Amid the spring breeze and the scent of books, Ancient Shendang Town captivated visitors during this Qingming Festival holiday with its Yu Hua literary as the theme. Along the Ancient Shendang Street, original cultural products flew off shelves. For example, over 100 handmade fridge magnets featuring landmarks like Shendang Shaoxing Wine Making and Victory Restaurant were sold at 10 to 40 yuan every day.

At Victory Restaurant, the real-life inspiration for Yu Hua’s novel, The Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (Xu Sanguan Sells Blood), visitors vied in a queue to taste “fried pork liver” described in his novel. The Restaurant became a must-visit spot due to its restoration of the scenes from the book and his handwritten inscriptions.

To welcome large crowds, Shendang arranged volunteers to direct traffic at intersections and parking lots, ensuring vehicles’ smooth access to three main parking lots and temporary stops. The plans are underway to expand the Restaurant and design riverside walking routes. Another project Yu Hua-themed commercial complex is to be launched, which will link such cultural landmarks as “Shendang Barns” “Shendang Soy Sauce and Shaoxing Wine Making” and Ancient Shendang Street to enable visitors to explore the entire town on foot.

“Camping economy” spurs local rural great transformation.

At the Scenic Area of South-north Lake, camping emerged as a top choice for families. On the first day of the holiday, dozens of colorful tents dotted the vast lawn, where groups of the tourists enjoyed themselves in the spring sun and scenery, chatting freely and happily. Also its picturesque scenery drew cycling enthusiasts to relish gorgeous mountains, clear lakes, open views and gentle slopes here.

In the Liujia Compound in Xitangqiao, a sub-district of Haiyan, the scent of outdoor cooked rice and the aroma of flowers wafted through air with soft sunshine on the vast lawn. The families gathered around earthen stoves, with a strong passion for rural life. The Compound’s newly opened camping zone including the venues for children’s play were fully booked during the holiday, and such activities were organized as feeding animals and sharing vegetable garden plots, upgrading a single-functional zone to a “camping plus” multifunctional one.

Around the lawn of Menghu Park downtown, nearly 100 tents were set up by locals and out-of-town visitors, where children flew kites, blew bubbles and enjoyed picnics in the center of the lawn.

Mini breaks reshape urban and rural spaces.

Scenic Area of Fengyi buzzed with various activities as crowds flocked to its rapeseed and cherry blossom fields. They snapped photos of the spring blooms, and participated in rice cooking and tea-picking enthusiastically.

In Xueshuigang Village, the sea of rapeseed flowers with over 13 hectares became a spectacle. The visitors wove through waist-high rapeseed blossoms for selfies. Nearby, families gathered around over 10-plus wood-fired stoves at camping sites to admire flowers and savor rustic flavors.

With attractive boardwalks, farming education bases and intangible cultural heritage workshops, this village is now developing a year-round tourism “circuit” with flowers appreciation in spring, study tours in summer, handcrafts making in autumn and folk traditions inheritance in winter to upgrade one-day tour to Xueshuigang to a mini rural tourist destination.