The 9th Dongsha Alley Festival, featuring the thousand-people banquet, kicked off on July 14 in Dongsha ancient town of Daishan, Zhoushan, East China’s Zhejiang province. 

As the highlight of the festival, the banquet welcomed over 3,000 foodies. The dishes were all Zhoushan-flavored delicacies, including dried bean curd, peanuts in Shayang, yellow croakers and all kinds of seafood. 

The festival was even more popular this year than last, with the number of banquet tables surging from 100 to 300. Half of the banquet dishes were prepared by local residents. “Thanks to the rapidly-developing ‘ancient fishing town’ tourism brand of the tourism department, people are earning more from the tourism industry,” said a principal of the local government.

Diners enjoy the thousand-people banquet in Dongsha ancient town, Zhoushan, on July 14. [Photo/zhoushan.cn] 

Wang Angping, owner of the Dongsha Time-honored Restaurant, strongly supports the festival, as it helps to attract more customers. This year, the 17 banquet tables in his restaurant were sold out within a short time.

Not only deeming the banquet event a method to draw more tourists, the local people also took the opportunity to share their memories of ancient Zhoushan. 

Hua Xianjun, a Dongsha local, prepared five tables of dishes in front of his own house to treat his relatives, friends and old classmates for free, just to show them something of his hometown. 

The Dongsha government had been sparing no efforts in developing the “thousand-people banquet” program into a famous brand, and is paying more attention to its cuisine. 

With the efforts of the local government, the thousand-people banquet has been a representative program in Dongsha and even in Daishan. “Considering the reception capacity, we have to keep the number of the tables from increasing too much, and adopt a strict standard on the quality of the food,” said a principal of the Dongsha government.