Home » City specials » Qingdao
Qingdao prepares for festive thrills
April 23, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A rich program of festivities looms for Qingdao residents with the annual folk culture celebration which officials have extended to take in coming holidays, Yao Minji reports.
On a sunny weekend afternoon, hundreds of people gather at an outdoor stage in Licang District, Qingdao, to watch the traditional Liuqiang Opera piece "Long Feng Mian," or "Dragon Phoenix Noodle," the story of a young man who meets his younger sister after doing the imperial examination.
The actors are dressed in traditional costumes and recite ancient lines to the cheers of the audience for a happy ending.
The event is a lead-up to the two-week 2010 Qingdao Folk Culture Festival, starting next Tuesday. It is the eighth festival since 2002.
The festival is usually finished by the end of April, but organizers this year have added more events to extend it through to May 9 to take in the Qingming Festival, the Labor Day and Mother's Day.
Organizers want to "ensure residents enjoy a surprisingly rich time," says Wang Shumin, bureau chief of Licang District Culture News Publishing Bureau.
In addition to Liuqiang Opera, local operatic genres Lu and Mao operas were also staged on the first weekend of April as a warm-up for the festival.
Such performances featuring local folk culture will be staged throughout the event.
Organizers have also invited dozens of folk cultural teams from around the country to amuse local residents.
The program includes stilt performances from Liaoning Province, martial arts shows from Henan Province and a horse head fiddle band from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, among others.
Traditional snacks will be another highlight of the event - hundreds of vendors from all over the country will sell their dim sum during the festival.
Although Qingdao has developed into a modern city, it also has a rich vein of folk culture and events, like the cultural festival.
Some of them have developed over the years from flower appreciating traditions of old times.
For example, the cultural festival was originally a cherry fair featuring cherry blossom in Qingdao in mid-to-late April.
Some other major events are based on traditional temple fairs from thousands of years ago. Like other Chinese coastal cities, Qingdao hosts many ocean-worship temples and honors a long history over thousands of years of ocean tribute festivities.
On certain dates, local fishermen would gather around the significant temples to pray for safe and rich harvest fishing.
Merchants and peasants also joined to pray to exchange goods, which later developed into crowded temple fairs.
One of the most famous and well-supported of these is Qingdao Haiyun Nunnery Sugar-coated Hawsticks Festival.
Developed from the temple fair in Haiyun Nunnery, the festival has been a folk event for hundreds of years.
The Sifang District government has fixed the festival date on the 16th to 22nd day of the first month of Chinese lunar calendar since 1990 and has also expanded it into one of the largest festivals of the year.
The highlight is a handful of sugar ball brands such as the Family Gao and Family Li, both carried on for hundreds of years.
Family Gao, operated by three brothers, is especially famous for its secret skills in sugaring the balls. Once in a while, one of the brothers will perform the secret production method in front of their stall.
He pours a large spoon of sugared water onto a few sticks of sugar balls and twists the sticks rapidly.
The sugared water attaches to the balls like snow flakes.
Hundreds of various snacks from home and abroad extend outward from the sugar ball vendors into the surrounding streets.
In addition to Chinese snacks, South Korean cakes, Russian barbecues and Japanese sushi are also offered by vendors.
Local organizers say more than 200,000 people crush into the fair on weekends.
The Haiyun Nunnery still attracts many visitors to pray for health and safety.
Many local residents gather before the stage for performances from all over the country while the rest enjoy traditional games and compete against each other.
On a sunny weekend afternoon, hundreds of people gather at an outdoor stage in Licang District, Qingdao, to watch the traditional Liuqiang Opera piece "Long Feng Mian," or "Dragon Phoenix Noodle," the story of a young man who meets his younger sister after doing the imperial examination.
The actors are dressed in traditional costumes and recite ancient lines to the cheers of the audience for a happy ending.
The event is a lead-up to the two-week 2010 Qingdao Folk Culture Festival, starting next Tuesday. It is the eighth festival since 2002.
The festival is usually finished by the end of April, but organizers this year have added more events to extend it through to May 9 to take in the Qingming Festival, the Labor Day and Mother's Day.
Organizers want to "ensure residents enjoy a surprisingly rich time," says Wang Shumin, bureau chief of Licang District Culture News Publishing Bureau.
In addition to Liuqiang Opera, local operatic genres Lu and Mao operas were also staged on the first weekend of April as a warm-up for the festival.
Such performances featuring local folk culture will be staged throughout the event.
Organizers have also invited dozens of folk cultural teams from around the country to amuse local residents.
The program includes stilt performances from Liaoning Province, martial arts shows from Henan Province and a horse head fiddle band from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, among others.
Traditional snacks will be another highlight of the event - hundreds of vendors from all over the country will sell their dim sum during the festival.
Although Qingdao has developed into a modern city, it also has a rich vein of folk culture and events, like the cultural festival.
Some of them have developed over the years from flower appreciating traditions of old times.
For example, the cultural festival was originally a cherry fair featuring cherry blossom in Qingdao in mid-to-late April.
Some other major events are based on traditional temple fairs from thousands of years ago. Like other Chinese coastal cities, Qingdao hosts many ocean-worship temples and honors a long history over thousands of years of ocean tribute festivities.
On certain dates, local fishermen would gather around the significant temples to pray for safe and rich harvest fishing.
Merchants and peasants also joined to pray to exchange goods, which later developed into crowded temple fairs.
One of the most famous and well-supported of these is Qingdao Haiyun Nunnery Sugar-coated Hawsticks Festival.
Developed from the temple fair in Haiyun Nunnery, the festival has been a folk event for hundreds of years.
The Sifang District government has fixed the festival date on the 16th to 22nd day of the first month of Chinese lunar calendar since 1990 and has also expanded it into one of the largest festivals of the year.
The highlight is a handful of sugar ball brands such as the Family Gao and Family Li, both carried on for hundreds of years.
Family Gao, operated by three brothers, is especially famous for its secret skills in sugaring the balls. Once in a while, one of the brothers will perform the secret production method in front of their stall.
He pours a large spoon of sugared water onto a few sticks of sugar balls and twists the sticks rapidly.
The sugared water attaches to the balls like snow flakes.
Hundreds of various snacks from home and abroad extend outward from the sugar ball vendors into the surrounding streets.
In addition to Chinese snacks, South Korean cakes, Russian barbecues and Japanese sushi are also offered by vendors.
Local organizers say more than 200,000 people crush into the fair on weekends.
The Haiyun Nunnery still attracts many visitors to pray for health and safety.
Many local residents gather before the stage for performances from all over the country while the rest enjoy traditional games and compete against each other.
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