National May Day Culture and Tourism Consumption Week Launches to Boost Holiday Experiences

The 2026 National May Day Culture and Tourism Consumption Week kicked off on April 27, aiming to meet the public’s travel needs during the holiday through a series of activities and service measures launched across the country. The event runs from late April to the end of the May Day holiday, integrating cultural and tourism resources to offer diverse and affordable experiences for residents and tourists.

Xinhua News Agency reports that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in collaboration with relevant enterprises and institutions, has rolled out a variety of people-benefiting cultural and tourism measures during the consumption week. Focusing on popular consumption trends such as spring outings and flower viewing, parent-child activities and study tours, local governments have launched seasonal cultural and tourism products and events, with about 13,700 cultural and tourism consumption activities to be held and over 284 million yuan in consumption coupons and subsidies to be issued.

At the promotion conference of the consumption week, a national May Day flower viewing tourism map and preferential measures for self-driving tours were released. In addition, during the May Day holiday, the China Tourism Scenic Area Association will organize a happy consumption season for tourist attractions, linking scenic spots across the country to launch nearly 200 activities. Xinhua News Agency adds that there will be more than 30,000 commercial performances nationwide, and multiple ticketing platforms will launch preferential packages under the theme “Travel with Performances” to enrich the travel experience.

Rural tourism is witnessing a boom as various regions introduce new activities and scenarios to attract tourists ahead of the holiday. In Hezhuang Street, Qiantang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the local government has promoted in-depth integration of agriculture, culture and tourism with the “one village, one product” model. A pastoral small train has been put into operation, connecting 4 stations and equipped with characteristic markets along the route to create an immersive slow pastoral travel experience for tourists.

Zhejiang launched its own May Day cultural and tourism consumption week on April 26, releasing a new list of recommended water-land integrated travel routes, covering the Grand Canal, Fuchun River, Ou River and other distinctive boutique water tour routes. During the holiday, Zhejiang will offer exclusive benefits at 396 scenic spots and issue over 39 million yuan in cultural and tourism consumption coupons.

In Yunnan Province, Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County in Pu’er City, which borders Vietnam and Laos and is an important station on the Ancient Tea Horse Road, is holding a series of activities for the “Water Tea Horse Road Culture Festival” ahead of May Day. CCTV News reports that new immersive experience projects such as fun fish catching, water fights and rewalking the Ancient Tea Horse Road have been launched.

Local authorities have released 600 kilograms of live fish into a pool; participants catch fish with their hands, and the person who catches the heaviest “fish king” can not only take the fish away but also receive rewards of characteristic agricultural products. Ancient caravans and fleets that once transported goods along the Lixian River attract numerous tourists, who sing and dance with local people to experience the prosperity of the ancient Tea Horse Road.

In Mohe, Heilongjiang Province, famous for its aurora, “spring viewing” tourist trains from many southern cities have arrived, with local cultural and tourism routes continuously updated. Recently, 800 southern tourists arrived at Mohe Railway Station by a tourist train departing from Fuzhou, starting a “journey northward” to enjoy spring.

In Beiji Village, tourists visit the Shenlu Aurora Museum to learn about the principles of aurora formation and polar astronomical knowledge, and explore the Mokou Thirty Post Station to taste the historical and folk culture of the Daxing’an Mountains. Mohe has integrated high-quality tourism resources to launch premium routes such as aurora chasing, spring snow appreciation and river ice breaking, allowing tourists to fully enjoy the fun of spring travel.