Festivals and Customs

Chinese New Year in Guilin

Spring Festival, widely known as Chinese New Year in the west, is the most important traditional festival and a public holiday in China. The 2011 Chinese New Year starts in February 3. It is the year of rabbit. The festival falls on the first day of the first lunar month (usually in late January and early February), and ends with Lantern Festival,which is on the 15th day.

Guilin locals celebrate the first day of the New Year with “lion” dancing. With the sound of firecrackers, the “lion” play and waves their body and go though the street, hence the name “Bainian”, which means pay a New Year call to families. People on the street follow behind the lion dancing team, and would like to get back with Good luck.

• Guilin Spring Festivel Tour

   

  Dragon Boat Festival

  Dragon Boat Contest is held on May 5th in Chinese lunar calendar. Guilin Dragon Boat Contest is held every 3 years. Participants train very hard to be in the best physical condition for this important and prestigious event. The banks of the Lijiang River are crowded with spectators on the day as the dragon boats race on the river with the deafening sounds of dragon boat songs, bells and drums. The winners are awarded the traditional prizes of silver coins and treated to a roasted pig.

  Guilin held its first International Dragon Boat Contest in 1998, which attracted Dragon Boat troupes from South East Asian Countries, Hong Kong SAR, Macau, and China 's Taiwan .

  This festival is full of color and traditional and would be well worth including on your itinerary.

  Lusheng Dance

  Lusheng Dance is a traditional recreation in festivals of Miao Nationalities. Young men play the Lusheng together. Ggirls are dressed in their traditional, costumes, wearing dragon and phoenix silver caps, silver hair clasp, and silver comb dance to the rhythm of Lusheng. Young people fall in love with each other through the dance.

  Bull Fighting

  Minority nationalities in the northern counties of Guilin have many festivals and folk customs, such as bull fighting, horse racing, and the Lusheng dance.

  Ziyuan River Lantern and Song Festival

  Held from July 13 to 14 in the Chinese Lunar Calender, River Lantern and Song Festival is the traditional festival from Ziyuan County which is 107km away from Guilin city.
  During the festival, large gatherings will be held by Han, Yao , Miao and other nationalities. Lion dance groups, dragon dance groups, river lantern groups and arts troupes from all villages will combine together for colorful folk art shows. When night falls, people take the river lantern to the river to commemorate their ancestors and pray for the good fortune for their children. The river lanterns make a fabulous dispaly at night on the river. The art performances and singing contests last all night. The following day the market will be crowded with people who carry on the celebration.

  Longsheng Red Clothes Festival

  Longsheng County is an autonomous county with many nationalities. The Red Yao are a sub-group of the Yao Nationality in Longsheng whose women wear Red as there national costume. The Red Clothes Festival, also known as Zhaina, is held on March 15 in the lunar calendar each year at Sishui Town . During this festival, Red Yao people gather in Sishui Street to exchange agricultural implements and products, buy daily necessities, or visit their friends and relatives. The young people take the chance to try to find a potential husband or wife.

  Red Yao people enjoy singing and dancing. Folk sports such as bamboo pole balancing, tug-of-wars and rooster fighting are practiced by the Yao . Women of Red Yao have extremely long hair and they wear it in a coil on top of their head.

  The Red Yoa like to have beauty contests. A beauty contestant in Red Yao criteria must be pretty, knowledgeable, be able to speak well, sing well and have good moral standard.

  Zhainai festival programs will contain singing in antiphonal style, long drum dance, sports contest, hair competition, and a Miss Village contest.

  With the development of the tourist industry, Red Clothes Festival has become a festival for all nationalities. It is held on March 15 in lunar month, or April 8, at Zhaina ( Sishui Village ), or at the foot of Longji Mountain .

  Yangshuo Rock Climbing Festival

  

  Yangshuo is a well-known for its unique Karst scenery, as well as a paradise for rock climbing for the climbers from all over the world, the forth Yangshuo International Climbing Festival will held in 1st to 4th December, 2011. In Yangshuo, you can not only enjoy the most beautiful scenery, but also can climb to the most diverse cliff and feels different ramps, as well as enjoy the most singularly climbing culture. Certainly this festival provides multiple awards and unprecedented experience of outdoor activities.

  Yangshuo county now is right in the mid-autumn, the weather is so lovely, warm and dry, the weather forecast statistic shows it will be sunny during the festival, the best time for rock climbing, At present, as one of this year's Festival special guest, Xie Weicheng is determined his present, he is one of the best climbers of natural rock and as well as he owns the Asia Climbing Alignment License. Yangshuo climbing Festival registration system was launching to the public since October, the rock climbing fans from all over the world set off the first round of application climax. Base on the official website statistics, just one week, the number of registrations from all over the world up to 150, more than 20 of them from abroad. For more domestic and foreign contestants list are ready to confirm by organizing Committee.

  This rock climbing Festival will become into a exciting, and distinctive annual climbing entertainment Carnival. The program Including rock climbing competition, natural rock relay race, introducing competition and difficult matches, the experts sharing, flat belt performance, climbing music festival, rock shows, Festival photo contest, the rock climbing festival history cultural exhibitions, and lucky draws will performed at this festival. "The climb" is the most creative competition, the contestants can choose any kinds of routs, according to the number of complete lines to get the value of the prize. The new rock culture exhibition is designed to let more people acknowledge rock climbing activity and join into this challenge outdoor sports.

  

  Meanwhile, in order to better run this renowned rock climbing event, the raise funds of this Rock Climbing Festival will be used only for the climbing routs development and maintenance, to ensure all the rock dude’s safety and climbing equipments. Through this festival, the organizers hope that it can be provided an opportunity for the domestic and abroad climbers for experience exchange, and to promote and facilitate the development of rock climbing outdoor activities.