Huanjiang to hold Fenlong Festival in June

The Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county in Hechi, Guangxi, recently held a meeting to discuss the 2016 Guangxi Huanjiang Fenlong Festival, deciding to celebrate the festival in June.

Representatives of the Huanjiang county Party committee office, county government, local publicity department, cultural, broadcasting, press and sports bureau, together with the Shenzhen Zongsen Marketing Planning Company attended the meeting.

As the most important festival in Huanjiang, the Fenlong Festival was held together with the first Karst Cultural Tourism Festival in 2015, a festival celebrating the karst landscape of Huanjiang and the ethnic culture of the Maonan people.

This year, the festival will be integrated with the second World Natural Heritage Cultural Tourism Festival to better promote the "leapfrog" development of Huanjiang's tourism industry.

Last year's festival was themed "Travel in a World Natural Heritage Site, Explore Mysterious Culture of the Maonan".

The Fenlong Festival, also known as the Temple Festival, is held every year, lasting for two or three days, and is the most important festival for the Maonan people. The festival celebrates the ancient story of a dragon flying down from Heaven and supplying water to the local farmers, helping them yield a bumper harvest.

The festival will last for seven days this year, including 16 activities such as an angling invitational tournament, a food festival, fireworks display, beer festival, Chinese Lion King Championship and Chinese Masks Conference.

Edited by Owen Fishwick