30 Temple Fairs and Lantern Fairs opened today in Beijing for Spring Festival, double last year's number, Beijing Daily reported.
Many renowned old Beijing enterprises, such as the Beijing Enamel Factory and the Golden-inlaid Lacquer Ware Company are taking part this year, hoping to boost sales.
The fairs have planned some outstanding attractions. Two members of the public will be chosen to play Qing dynasty Emperors at the Ditan Temple Fair; The Longtan Temple fair is recreating the Shenzhou Ⅶ space mission and the Dongyue Temple Fair has revived an ancient Daoist ceremony.
The oldest fair, Jinyuan Shopping Mall is concentrating on folk performances and traditional Spring Festival goods. The Beijing Enamel Factory, Golden-inlaid Lacquer Ware Company, the Zhangyiyuan and Gengxiang Tea Companies and the Caishikou Department Store are all staging special activities to showcase traditional Chinese culture.
Changdian Temple Fair and the 2009 Spring Festival Carnival at Beijing amusement park are open free of charge to all. Longtan fair is offering free tickets for low-income families, and has set up a book donation scheme for earthquake-hit areas. Beijing International Sculpture Park is giving away free tickets to school students and teachers.
An average of about 6,500,000 people attend each fair every year with the more successful attracting around 8,000,000; The Ditan fair managed to attract 10 million last year. So the participating forms can expect to do good business.
(China.org.cn by Jessica Zhang, January 16, 2008)
