Province welcomes back people from across the country and public events bring joy to the streets

Tourists fill the streets of the Ancient City of Pingyao on Feb 17. Shanxi province received 35.26 million tourist visits during the Spring Festival holiday. LIANG SHENGREN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China, spanning about one month. It will end on Lantern Festival, which falls on Tuesday this year.

This is typically the case in North China's Shanxi province, where the festive atmosphere is felt through the mass arrival of people, a booming consumer market, and more importantly, the presentation of colorful culture and traditions.

The festival centers around Chinese New Year's Day, which was celebrated on Feb 17 this year.

On that day, a demonstration of Shanxi-style sugar painting at the Shanxi Grand Theater in the provincial capital of Taiyuan attracted the attention of many people.

Sugar painting is a kind of traditional folk art popular throughout China during traditional festivals. It involves the use of sugar syrup to make a snack with colorful patterns. Shanxi-style sugar painting, which has been inscribed on the provincial list of intangible cultural heritage, is an art combining snack-making, painting, calligraphy and engraving, usually giving an appearance of shadow puppetry or paper-cutting.

Liu Chang, a recognized inheritor and master of the art, showed the audience how the snack was made.

He used a small soup spoon to scoop melted sugar and quickly poured it on a flat stone board to draw a design. Once done, the artist used a small spatula to pick up the sugar painting and placed it on a skewer.

Costumed performers parade through the city of Shuozhou in a traditional dance called yangge during the holiday. YUAN ZHAOHUI/LI XIAOLONG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Sweet experience

Zhang Hongyan, a retired teacher in Taiyuan, was among the visitors to the show. She said the performance brought back childhood memories.

"Eating a sugar-painting snack was the wish of many children during Spring Festival when I was young,"Zhang said. "And it remains a sweet experience for many nowadays."

ICH shows could be seen everywhere in Shanxi during this year's Spring Festival holiday.

According to the Shanxi Department of Culture and Tourism, more than 100 ICH shows have been staged in the province during the period, giving tourists and local residents an opportunity to experience the charm of local culture and traditions.

The shows also proved to be a magnet to overseas tourists. On Feb 11, a special tour of Shanxi for overseas influencers was launched. In the city of Xinzhou, local paper-cutting master Li Binjie hosted a workshop for the visitors, who tried to make paper-cuts under the instruction of Li.

Syed Zawar Shah and his wife Iqra, who were studying at a university in Shanxi, were among the tour group. They made paper-cuts featuring various patterns of horses.

"This year is the Year of the Horse and we spent our holiday here in Shanxi," said the husband. "Here in Xinzhou, we are impressed with the unique traditions of Chinese New Year and we are grateful for the friendliness and warmth of the hosts like Master Li. This is an experience that we will cherish for our lifetime."

Artists from Qingxu county hold a beigun show in Taiyuan Zoo. LI PEIJING/FOR CHINA DAILY

Continuing heritage

The Spring Festival ICH shows were also an opportunity for local arts and traditions to be passed down to the younger generation.

On Feb 20, artists from the village of Xugou in Qingxu county held a beigun performance at the Taiyuan Zoo in the provincial capital.

Beigun — the art of balancing someone on a rod attached to another's back — features young children standing on small metal plates about 2 meters off the ground. The rods are connected to harnesses worn by adults standing below.

The traditional performance is said to date back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when toddlers sat on the shoulders of adults to watch festivities during Lantern Festival. That inspired villagers in Xugou to dress young children in elaborate costumes and then be carried on the shoulders of their parents to perform on the streets.

Over the centuries, the once crude art form developed into a highly sought-after dance show that adds to the New Year excitement in the village. In recent decades, the art has gone beyond the village and has been performed throughout Shanxi and China.

The art attracts audience members as it is a unique performance combining theater, dancing and acrobatic arts. It was inscribed onto the national ICH list in 2008.

Liu Yunyu, 6, was among the young performers of the beigun show. Prior to the performance, she told her adult partner "I'm ready" with confidence.

The girl began to learn the art when she was 3. Over the past three years, she has perfectly mastered the skills of her part, like balancing in the air and dancing to the carrier's movement, according to her partner.

A foreign tourist joins folk dancers in the city of Xinzhou. WEI BO/YAN CHANGJIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Booming market

The Spring Festival holiday is a prime period for the consumer market, especially in the entertainment, tourism and shopping sectors.

The movie industry is one of the beneficiaries of the Spring Festival spending spree, as watching movies has become a new way of family reunion.

To cater to this demand, many cinemas in Shanxi have presented special offerings for families during the period.

For instance, the animated film Boonie Bears: The Hidden Protector was screened at the Wanda Cinema in Taiyuan.

With a continuous presence in the Chinese New Year film season for 12 consecutive years, the Boonie Bears has become the first domestic animated movie series in China to accompany audience members through the entire Chinese zodiac cycle, creating cherished New Year memories for families.

Xiang Ying, a Taiyuan resident, took her son to the cinema on Feb 20 to watch the film. "I have watched the movie with my son every Spring Festival in recent years," she said."The movie is something that has accompanied my child's growth and a catalyst for family love."

On that day, Wanda Cinema Taiyuan received about 11,000 visits. It garnered a box office revenue of 598,000 yuan ($87,455), ranking it second among cinemas nationwide.

While the 2026 Winter Olympic Games were held in Italy, winter sports became a flourishing tourism sector in Shanxi.

On Feb 18, Wang Kun, a retired teacher of 60, took to the professional course at the Jiulong International Ski Resort in the city of Jinzhong. She skied in an easy manner, leaving two elegant trails behind her. She showed a skill that defied her age.

"I love skiing, which can free me from all worldly worries," Wang said.

Tourists snowboard at a ski resort in Shanxi province. ZHOU HUIFANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Integrated tourism

Shanxi's sport authorities were trying to promote a combination of tourism and winter sports. In December, the Sport Bureau of Shanxi recommended six winter sports routes for tourists, integrating ski resorts with such famed destinations as Yungang Grottoes, Mount Wutai, the Great Wall and the Yellow River.

In the province, travel operators were also empowering tourism with culture and technologies, aiming to offer new experiences to tourists.

In Jinzhong's Yuci Old Town, an immersive touring experience was created, featuring cultural interactions in the daytime and high-tech light shows in the nighttime.

In the Yangquan Memory 1947 Cultural Park in the eastern Shanxi city of Yangquan, tourists could enjoy a number of cultural and entertainment activities, including interactive parades, cosplay shows, fireworks, modern and traditional music performances, and electronic games.

Latest statistics from the Shanxi Department of Culture and Tourism showed the province received 35.26 million tourist visits during the Spring Festival holiday, garnering a total tourism revenue of 40.89 billion yuan.

Firefighters have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at a forest monitoring station in the Guancen Mountain Forest Park in Ningwu county. CHEN WENBIAO/FOR CHINA DAILY

'Well-being guardians'

While millions of people were traveling home for a family reunion, there were many still on duty to safeguard others. These "well-being guardians" include medics at various hospitals in Shanxi.

On Feb 16, Chinese New Year's Eve, Li Chunjing, head of the inpatient department of the People's Hospital of Lingqiu in the northern Shanxi city of Datong, accompanied some elder patients, instead of his family members.

"Winter is the time of high occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases among senior people," he said. "The occurrence rate is especially high during the festival periods as their diet and daily routine differ from normal times. That means we are busier during this period of time."

Also on full alert were firefighters, to prevent the risks of fire incurred by crackers and fireworks.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the temperature dropped to — 15 C at the Guancen Mountain Forest Park. Several firefighters rested at a forest monitoring station after a day's work. When they were talking to their families on the phone, they saw a fire engine approaching.

To their delight, their colleagues had brought them a big dinner. "The dishes are more delicious than ever," said one of the firefighters. "The festive atmosphere is still here when we are on duty."

Far away from their homes, a group of Shanxi medics spent their Spring Festival at a hospital in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon. They are part of the current Shanxi medical aid team to Africa.

Due to the time difference, Wang Jianhua, head of the team, and his colleagues were standing at an operating table while their family members were sitting down to Chinese New Year's Eve dinners.

"Safeguarding the health of locals is our new year gift to the people of Cameroon," the doctor said.

Since 1975, Shanxi has dispatched 25 medical aid teams to Africa, involving a total of 811 medics, according to the Shanxi Health Commission.

Zhang Qi contributed to this story.

Members of the Shanxi medical aid team celebrate Chinese New Year with colleagues at a hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon. ZHANG LILI/FOR CHINA DAILY