On the night of Nov 7, the 6^th Chinese Poetry Festival successfully wrapped up in Chongqing. A fascinating closing ceremony with eye-catching lights shows, drone performances, culture performances, and a stage set up with the dazzlingly beautiful night views of Chongqing as its backdrop was held at Danzishi Square, Nan’an District, where the Yangtze River converges with the Jialing River.

 

Appealing performances with the stunning night views as its backdrop

The poetic performances of the Closing Ceremony with Zhang Guoli as the Chief Director and Li Fuxiang as the Chief Artistic Director had four chapters including the Story of Red Crag, the Poetic Mountain City, the Poetry of China, and the Beautiful Poetry of the Time. It integrated the stunning night views of Chongqing and the romantic poetic show together by perfectly applying the advanced technology, light shows of skyscrapers and landmark buildings on four banks, and colorful reflections of lights of cruises on rivers.

Programs like Yangtze River Work Song of the traditional instrumental ensemble and the chorus, the poem-reading Hello, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the singing A Praise to Red-Plum, the dialect show the Bangbang Army (porters) of the Mountain City fully presented the artistic blend of the profound culture of glamourous Chongqing and Chinese poetry.

Meanwhile, the highlights of the performance of the Closing Ceremony, like the stunning drone performance and lights show of skyscrapers and landmark buildings, pushed the ceremony to the height. When different patterns were formed by thousands of drones in the air, thunderous applauses burst out among audiences.

Developing tourism through culture and manifesting culture through tourism

With a rich culture and long-history poetic culture history, Sichuan-Chongqing Region has attracted many famous poets to visit the region and created lots of great masterpieces since the ancient time. A series of activities for the 6^th Chinese Poetry Festival like the sightseeing, the exchange activity, and the creating activity had been held from Nov 4 to 7. Poets, scholars, and guests participating in the poetry festival visited schools, tourist attractions, villages, cultural relics, and museums to experience the beauty of Chongqing’s life and culture and seek inspiration for their creations. They will create poems to arouse forward strength and empower the high-quality development of Chongqing’s economy and society through prosperous culture.

On the night of Nov 4, participants cruised on the Yangtze River and Jialing River to enjoy the fascinating night view of Chongqing. Then they visited Jiangjin District, Beibei District, Fengjie County for sightseeing from Nov 5 to 7. During that time, participants also attend various activities such as the poem-reading meeting, culture performances. Appealing landscapes of Chongqing inspired these poets, which made many of them improvise poems.

Apart from the poetry festival, 10 poetry-related tour routes covering many famous tourist attractions like the Three Gorges, the North Hot Spring, the White Emperor City, and so forth were launched to make tourists experience both the beautiful landscapes and glamourous culture of Chongqing.

Poetry-related activities held to create a poetic atmosphere

The Poetry Forum was held during the Poetry Festival. Famous poets, poem critics, scholars, and editors in chief exchanged ideas and discussed topics on “the aesthetic transformation of the world pattern and the indigenous writings” “the responsibility of poetry in the fight against the pandemic and awareness of a community with a shared future for mankind”, and “Bashu culture, traditional resources, and creations in a new era”.

At the same time, poetry-related activities were held in schools, communities, tourist attractions, shopping centers, and bookstores. Lectures on poetry, the classic poems reading activity, poetry salons, and many other activities were held via the Internet to promote community interactions of Sichuan-Chongqing regions, and enable poetry to reach everyone’s life. Through these activities, the gap between the poetic art and ordinary people’s life would be bridged and Chinese splendid traditional culture would be carried forward.

The 6^th Chinese Poetry Festival is the first offline culture activity at the national level after the pandemic prevention and control measures take effect and enter normalization. With rich content, the wide-reaching, and high engagements, the Poetry Festival manifests charms of poetry and profound Chinese civilization and inspires people’s enthusiasm toward poetry arts and poetic life.