Shanghai Daily news

Parades, street parties, fireworks and the Yuyuan Garden becoming part of the Silk Road are some of the events planned for this year's Shanghai Tourism Festival. Fan Meijing reports that another attraction is part of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations and involves turning Guilin Park into a Tang Dynasty marketplace.

Crowds on Nanjing Road participate in last year’s tourism festival float parade.

From this weekend until the National Day holiday beginning on October 1, Shanghai's streets will be taken over by crowds watching and taking part in the special events organized to celebrate the 2005 Shanghai Tourism Festival.
A total of 23 festooned floats from home and abroad will open proceedings with a parade along downtown Huaihai Road tomorrow night.
Bands from Switzerland, France, Germany and the United States and dance troupes from Greece, Finland, India, Italy, Malaysia and South Korea will present a variety of folk performances on the floats.
Visitors can also enjoy folk music and dances from Yunnan Province, a drum performance from Shanxi Province, dramatic presentations of Chinese folk tales and the story of Ji Gong (1130-1209), the legendary monk from the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
As soon as the float parade ends, a party will kick off on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall.
Pop music ranging from funk to R&B and rock and roll will be presented along with street dance, tap dance, jazz and Latin dance. The three-hour party will be followed by a fireworks display.
Singers, dancers, DJs and musicians will roam among the crowds inviting everyone to join in the celebration.
For overseas tourists and local expats, the Yuyuan Garden will be an ideal location for taking a look back into China's history.
A China Day Festival with a Silk Road theme will be held in the garden from tomorrow with displays of historic scenes, handicrafts, costumes and pictures. The show is designed to illustrate the economy, culture and art of the world's oldest trade route.
Also in Yuyuan, more than 50 antique clocks and watches, once owned by emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and now in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing, will go on exhibition for the first time in Shanghai.
Also, foreigners will be able to look closely at the daily life of local ordinary residents by traveling through the traditional longtangs - alleyways connecting old-style shikumen (stone-gate) houses - visiting families there and learning how to make dumplings and wontons.
"The host families are mostly well-educated people who maintain many age-old customs and can tell stories about the city's past," says Zhang Weicheng, an official with the Jing'an District Tourism Bureau.
Those who want to experience how Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in ancient times should go to Guilin Park, where a party based on some of the cultural elements of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) will be held on Sunday.
Vendors dressed in traditional Tang Dynasty costumes and carrying bamboo baskets will move around the park hawking their wares and re-creating a prosperous market of the Zhenguan Period (627-649 AD) of the Tang Dynasty.
Visitors may rent or buy some of the costumes and dress up as citizens of the Tang era.
Folk craft shows, Tang dress shows, traditional Chinese tea ceremonies and puppet performances will be staged, and visitors will be invited to take part in various folk games such as lantern riddle guessing and drum playing.

Shanghai Tourism Festival Ticketing Center
Tel: 5382-7330, 5351-0930