Consular officials experience Tang Spring Festival culture

The "Poetic Charm of Chang'an: Galloping into Chinese New Year" was held at the Tang West Market Museum in Xi'an on March 3.

Around 50 participants, including representatives from the China-Central Asia Mechanism Secretariat and consular officials from the South Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan, gathered to embark on a cultural journey through the Tang Dynasty (618-907), immersed in the festive spirit of the Lantern Festival.

The event, which focused on the themes of "Tang Poetry", "Year of the Horse Spring Festival", and "Life in the Flourishing Tang Dynasty", offered a rich array of activities, including guided tours of Silk Road artifacts, visits to special Chinese New Year exhibitions, and hands-on experiences with intangible cultural heritage crafts, allowing guests to immerse themselves in the distinctive charm of traditional Chinese New Year customs.

At the Tang West Market Museum's exhibition area, each artifact narrated the story of Chang'an's (the ancient Xi'an) openness and cultural fusion as the starting point of the Silk Road, with Persian silver coins retaining their ancient luster, and tri-colored glazed pottery camels appearing vividly life-like.

At the special exhibition hall, "A Thousand Years, A Shared Resonance – Welcoming the Year of the Horse Through Poetry", a Chinese New Year scene was woven by intertwining Tang poetry with the horse zodiac, Tang festive customs, and artifacts from that golden age.

During the intangible cultural heritage experience, traditional crafts such as sugar blowing and painting, dough figurine sculpting, and paper cutting engaged the guests, who held their breath as they crafted figurines, and cut decorations carefully.

This experience allowed consular officials to truly appreciate the grandeur of Tang culture and the enduring legacy of Silk Road civilization during Lantern Festival, creating a cultural bridge to foster greater understanding and friendship between China and the world.