As the summer season arrives, the nighttime cultural tourism market is heating up. This weekend, Yancheng Lane in Haizhou District, Lianyungang City, seized the 40th anniversary of the 1986 TV series "Journey to the West" broadcast as an opportunity to launch two major cultural tourism activities: the immersive "Yanhe Night Never Ends, Journey to the West Enters Dreams" themed night tour and the "Hi Journey to the West · Mountain and Sea Grand Stage" block concert. These events, lasting three days from Friday to Sunday, energized the entire block, deeply integrating classic cultural IPs with street consumption scenes while awakening cross-generational collective cultural memories and boosting foot traffic and spending, injecting new momentum into the summer night economy.
On Friday evening, the immersive "Yanhe Night Never Ends, Journey to the West Enters Dreams" themed night tour debuted at Yancheng Lane. The event adopted a presentation model combining "fixed-point performances, full-area mobile interactions, and mass carnival parades," integrating martial arts, opera, folk music, dance, and interactive experiences. Four themed performance points were set up within the block, presenting classic "Journey to the West" storylines such as the Monkey King's birth martial arts performance, the opera-fusion martial arts drama of the Three Beats on the White Bone Demon, the restoration of the Daughter Kingdom scene, and the interactive experience of the Four Saints Testing the Zen Heart. Additionally, multiple Journey to the West-themed NPCs roamed through the streets and shop areas, randomly interacting with visitors, enhancing the sense of participation and creating a scene-based, immersive nighttime cultural tourism experience.
"Walking on the street, I feel like the dreams from the cartoons I watched as a child come true. It's very exciting and lively. The wonderful activities match perfectly with the hot summer," said Wang Rui, a tourist from Gansu Province. The traffic-driving effect of cultural activities directly translated into consumption power. On the night of the event, popular categories like grilled skewers and seafood in the block saw table turnover rates exceed two rounds, while sales of Journey to the West-themed cultural and creative merchandise hit near-term highs. Monitoring showed that the average visitor stay time that night was 1.8 hours, a 28% increase compared to a regular weekend.
Following the momentum of Friday's night tour, the "Hi Journey to the West · Mountain and Sea Grand Stage" block concert took place on Saturday and Sunday evenings at the Queqiao Stage on Yancheng Lane. Centered on the Journey to the West cultural IP, the event integrated various art forms such as Chinese folk music, vocal performances, and electronic organ playing, presenting over ten classic pieces like "Cloud Palace Rapid Sound," "Daughter's Love," and "Red Flame Tassel." The riverside lights and flowing water served as natural stage backdrops, offering the audience an immersive audio-visual experience. The diverse performance formats continuously enriched the summer cultural tourism product offerings at Yancheng Lane.
"Journey to the West culture is a national cultural memory with a broad mass base. By combining classic cultural IPs with the consumption scenes of the marketplace, we create immersive night tour products, integrating excellent traditional culture into modern life and empowering consumption upgrades through culture," said Qian Fanxue, Marketing Director of the Haizhou District Commercial Street Development Center. From the scenic presentation of classic IPs to the linkage of cultural tourism formats, the three consecutive days of themed activities achieved a simultaneous improvement in cultural and economic benefits. It is reported that Yancheng Lane will continue to explore the contemporary value of excellent traditional culture, launching more differentiated and high-quality night tour themed activities to continuously enrich the supply of nighttime cultural tourism products, providing more diverse leisure options for citizens and tourists, and maintaining the block's nighttime consumption heat.
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