A dragon dance performance at the launch ceremony of the 2024 Spring Festival Shandong Rural Culture and Tourism Festival in Tai'an. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Tai'an held the launch ceremony for the 2024 Spring Festival Shandong Rural Culture and Tourism Festival on Jan 18.

The city is one of the four main venues for the festival in Shandong province.

The Tai'an venue consists of four exhibition areas featuring calligraphy and paintings, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) creative products, goods for Spring Festival, and storytelling performances.

Fifteen storytelling teams, stretching over a hundred meters, showcased traditional folk performances such as dragon and lion dances, stilt walking, and yangko dance.

At the launch ceremony, 50 artists drew "golden dragon welcoming Spring Festival" on a hundred-meter-long scroll.

Diverse cultural and artistic ICH items, including Taishan Shadow Puppetry, Taishan Tea Valley, and Taishan clay sculptures, from different counties and districts were performed, displayed, and sold at the ICH creative products exhibition area.

"We have planned over 50 key activities for the 2024 Spring Festival Shandong Rural Culture and Tourism Festival to showcase Tai'an's fine products, beautiful scenery, delicious food, cultural and artistic charm, and local customs to boost rural cultural tourism," said Lei Jianmin, deputy director the municipal publicity department.

The 2024 Spring Festival Shandong Rural Culture and Tourism Festival will be held in three phases, with the first phase highlighting the theme "every village presents a great show to welcome Spring Festival" and running from Jan 18 to Feb 2. The second phase, which will emphasize the theme of returning to the village to celebrate Spring Festival", will run from Feb 3 to 17. The third phase will focus on the theme "the Year of the Dragon brings new atmosphere to every village" and run from Feb 18 to March 11.

Calligraphy artists write the fu character at the launch ceremony of the 2024 Spring Festival Shandong Rural Culture and Tourism Festival in Tai'an. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Fifteen storytelling teams showcase traditional folk performances such as stilt walking at the launch ceremony of the 2024 Spring Festival Shandong Rural Culture and Tourism Festival in Tai'an. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]