Huangshan, China — November 15, 2025
The 15th Anhui International Cultural Tourism Festival opened Friday in the city of Huangshan, drawing about 800 guests, including foreign diplomats, leaders of international tourism organizations, major travel agencies, investors, and representatives from overseas Chinese-language media.
The annual festival has become one of Anhui’s key platforms for international cultural exchange and tourism cooperation — a window, officials say, for presenting the province’s image and deepening dialogue among civilizations.
This year’s edition features a broad program, including an inbound tourism conference, a matchmaking event on technology-enabled cultural tourism, an industry supply-chain forum, and the “2025 Overseas Chinese Media Tour of Anhui.”
Major investment deals announced
At the opening ceremony, the Anhui provincial government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Tourism Group, while the provincial Department of Culture and Tourism reached similar agreements with several companies. Sixteen cultural and tourism projects were signed in total, representing an investment of 12.4 billion yuan (about CAD 2.4 billion). The projects cover sectors such as vacation resorts, wellness tourism, and cultural and creative industries.
South Korea is the festival’s guest country. In his remarks, Kim Young-jun, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, said Anhui is “one of China’s most representative tourism provinces.” He added that as Korea–China cooperation continues to deepen in trade and culture,交流 between businesses and citizens from both sides “will only become more active.”
Inbound tourism on the rise
According to official data, Anhui recorded strong gains in international tourism this year. Between January and September, the province saw inbound visitor numbers grow by 62.9 per cent, while international tourism revenue increased by 53.6 per cent year-over-year.
Immersive performance highlights local culture
One of the festival’s headline events was an immersive evening performance that blended live staging with digital projection. The show presented five of Anhui’s iconic cultural identities — Huizhou culture, Yangtze River culture, Huai River culture, Grand Canal culture and the traditional Huangmei opera — through a mix of artistic storytelling, technology, and reinterpretations of classic cultural themes.
Festival organizers said the goal was to create a production that pairs deep cultural heritage with modern presentation, offering audiences both local and international a distinctive “dialogue between past and present.”
