Chengdu’s Wuhou Shrine Museum turned its National Day programme into a working craft fair this year, and the public came in numbers. Working with the Wuhou district culture, sports and tourism bureau, the museum staged “Hanfeng Huadan: Jinnan Miajie”, a week of performances, markets, games and exhibitions built around Sichuan’s own trades. Over the holiday it drew 763,164 visitors, up 1.05 percent on the year before, while cultural and creative sales rose 3.3 percent.
It began on October 1 and was laid out less like a schedule than a walk. A visitor could start with a parade, move to a stage show, cross to a market workshop and finish inside an exhibition hall, with Sichuan opera, folk craft and Three Kingdoms storytelling threaded between them.
Banners and NPCs Open the Fair
The opening parade set the tone. Drummers led the “Jinnan Fengqing” procession down the west zone, and the first formation was a national-level heritage Zhongfan banner team, its tall flags streaming in the wind. Juggling performers followed with their toss-and-catch routines, and a column of costumed Three Kingdoms characters walked the market street, stopping to pose with visitors as they went.
From there the main stage took over with a programme of Guofeng song and dance, acrobatics, Sichuan opera face-changing, magic and scenario pieces, into which the Chengdu Sichuan Opera Theatre brought a full classical repertory. On October 1 and 2, at 10:30 each morning, a multi-point music show began across the Sanyi Temple square and the Three Kingdoms culture hall, where Guqin, xiao bamboo flute and handpan carried pieces such as “Wolong Yin”, “Wuhou Xuange” and “Liangxiao Yin” through the old courtyards.
Looms and Needles at the Market
Thirty Guofeng stalls made up the west-zone market, which ran on both craft and food. Candied hawthorn and Dingding sugar scented the aisles, while Rongchang grass cloth and Shu brocade drew buyers looking for cloth rather than snacks. The organisers had sorted the stalls to show a chain rather than a scatter of goods, pairing what could be watched with what could be bought.
Its centrepiece was the Master Workshop, led by three national-level crafts: Shu brocade weaving, Shu embroidery and Qingshen bamboo weaving. Visitors could watch the loom’s warp figuring and the tiaohua jieben tie-and-lift method, study several embroidery stitches by name, and see a Qingshen weaver split a hundred jin of bamboo down to eight liang of fine thread. On October 1, from 2:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon, a Master Class set an embroidery master to work in public, guiding visitors through the line between a stitch and a picture, and a naked-eye 3D photo wall and Guofeng character actors gave the younger crowd their own stops.
A City Game and Six Shows
On October 7 the west zone opened the Wuhou district’s “Xunhou Wenshu” city exploration game. Players moved through a narrative course across the grounds, choosing one of four identities, strategist, general, scout or envoy, and siding with Wei, Shu or Wu, and combining puzzle-solving, physical tasks, negotiation and team battles to bring onlookers in as participants.
Six themed exhibitions ran alongside. “Shudu Fu” rebuilt the old Yizhou landscape through hometown feeling, strategy and imagination; “Mingliang Qianqiu” told the bond between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang; and a horse-zodiac joint show, a Wuhou Shrine history display, a Three Kingdoms painting show and a heritage-life photo exhibition filled out the set. One local visitor summed up the appeal simply, saying the trip had been worth it for the chance to meet Three Kingdoms history and old crafts such as Shu embroidery and bamboo weaving in one place, and to taste real Sichuan snacks while doing so.
