MCT Briefing: Poetry Festival and Peking Opera Festival to Highlight Culture-Tourism Integration

Key points

• China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism held its third-quarter 2026 routine press briefing in Beijing on September 20, presenting the overall plans and preparation highlights for the 8th China Poetry Festival and the 11th China Peking Opera Festival.
• The 8th China Poetry Festival will run October 12-23 in Taizhou, Zhejiang, under the theme 'Poetry Surging from Mountains and Seas, Poetic China', with main activities including opening and closing ceremonies and artistic performances, poetry seminars, poetry field-creation and solicitation, and public poetry events.
• During the poetry festival, supporting activities will include 'Poetry+' culture-tourism integration events, 'Poetic Taizhou' series and 'Tang and Song Charm' tourism performances, alongside upgraded poetry-route themed itineraries.
• Zhejiang will refine the 'Follow Poetry to Tour Zhejiang' brand, build the cross-regional 'Yannan Feixian Sea-Sky Tour' premium route, and develop 'poetry-route towns' and 'poetic ancient villages' to shift one-off visits toward longer-stay, experience-based spending.
• The 11th China Peking Opera Festival will run October 15-November 5 in Wuhan, Hubei, with seven main activity strands: outstanding repertoire showcases, small-theatre performances, short-opera and excerpt sessions, opera-academy showcases, repertoire reviews, thematic seminars and the 'Spark Project' young opera talent creation camp.
• The Peking Opera festival will emphasize culture-tourism integration, planning accessible 'Peking Opera+' activities such as public-benefit performances, arts lectures and fan interaction, plus events including the 'Opera by the River Beach Fair: Intangible Heritage + Peking Opera Culture-Tourism Experience'.