Canton Festival serves to promote Cantonese culture

The 2017 Canton Festival, an event for visitors to gain a better understanding of Cantonese culture, concluded on Dec 23 in Guangzhou. More than 5 million visitors from home and abroad joined in the ten-day cultural carnival which was mainly hosted at the Beijing Road Cultural Tourism Zone.

A group of foreign visitors try to draw Cantonese Opera facial make-up during a tour to one of Guangzhou's historical sites. [Photo/ycwb.com]

As the first national 4A class tourist attraction opening to the public for free in Guangdong province, Beijing Road Cultural Tourism Zone provided the best scenes of Cantonese life for inbound visitors during the cultural carnival. In September, the place was dubbed as a "World Excellent Tourism Destination" by the World Centre of Excellence for Destinations, the third place in China to receive the honor.   

The 2017 Canton Festival continued the special tours in which a group of foreigners were invited to visit the historic cultural sites in Guangzhou as well as the distinctive scenic spots in Beijing Road Cultural Tourism Zone. The tour group for this year featured consul-generals and leaders of foreign chambers of commerce.

A total of seven special thematic zones were set up at the event including a Cantonese Food Exhibition Zone, an Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Zone, a Cantonese Souvenirs Zone and a World Tourism Exhibition Zone. 

The carnival also attracted ASEAN countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Laos as well as Argentina to set up booths to promote their local tourism and food delicacies. 

Mendoza, a famous winery from Argentina, sets up a booth at the 2017 Canton Festival to promote their tasty wine. [Photo/ycwb.com]

Highlights of the festival included the Big Eaters Challenge in which a group of contestants gathered and competed against each other by devouring Cantonese snacks. There was also the ASEAN Culture Performance which exhibited traditional Indonesian dances, Philippian cultural performances and Thai cultural shows.

This year, the organizers introduced a real-time Cloud Photo Library where photos of the 2017 Canton Festival taken by professional photographers were shared and made available for participants to view. During the event, numerous visitors posted the photos on their social media and greatly promoted the culturally Cantonese event.

Foodies compete against each other at the Big Eaters Challenge during the 2017 Canton Festival held at Guangzhou's Beijing Road Cultural Tourism Zone. [Photo/ycwb.com]

This year marked the ninth year in which Guangzhou has hosted the Canton Festival. The annual event has become a key international platform to promote Cantonese culture, custom and life to people worldwide. In the future, the organizers will work together with Beijing Road Cultural Tourism Zone to further increase the influence of the Canton Festival, by promoting the integration of business, tourism and culture at Beijing Road Cultural Tourism Zone and paving a solid cultural foundation for Guangzhou to build itself into a global cultural city.