The 2026 Huairou Guochao (China-chic) Cultural Festival officially kicked off during the May Day holiday from Friday to Tuesday in Huairou district, Beijing. This cultural and tourism extravaganza invites visitors near and far to celebrate traditional Chinese style. The festival will run through October, featuring dozens of special events in succession, as a new chapter of cultural tourism unfolds across the entire region.
This year's festival deeply integrates elements of trendy Chinese styles with Great Wall culture, intangible cultural heritage, the natural landscape and ecology, technology and film, and rural leisure.
It aims to drive the transformation and upgrading of the cultural tourism industry from sightseeing tours to experience-based, vacation-oriented travel, creating a new ecosystem that covers the entire region, operates year-round, integrates the entire industry chain, and is shared by all. In doing so, Huairou's strength contributes to the high-quality development of the capital's cultural tourism sector and the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
The festival also features five major experiential zones, with nearly 60 market stalls making a collective appearance, covering a diverse range of offerings including guochao performances, cultural and creative products, intangible cultural heritage, specialty cuisines, tech-driven interactive experiences, and traditional games.
Time-honored brands join the event while intangible cultural heritage crafts, including Beijing embroidery, are demonstrated and taught on site. Traditional interactive activities such as cuju (ancient Chinese soccer), archery, and hanfu (traditional attire) parades add to the fun. With the addition of a "guochao stamp collecting passport" checkpoint system, visitors of all ages can fully engage in the experience.
From Friday to Saturday, tens of thousands of attendees visited the Huairou guochao markets, strolling through the stalls, tasting delicacies, enjoying performances, and experiencing intangible cultural heritage. Through immersive activities, they felt the unique charm of traditional culture colliding with modern trends, experiencing a distinctive May Day holiday.
