On the evening of August 8, 2026, the “Wind Rising Over the Hexi Corridor, Feasting the World” (风起河西宴天下) Shandan 2026 cultural-tourism promotion week and the fourth Chaobola Food Carnival opened at Zhixing Square in Shandan County, Zhangye, Gansu Province. Built around intangible heritage food and the Silk Road as its cultural core, the event runs to August 22 and links the counties and banners along the Hexi Corridor, with two main venues — Zhixing Square and Yanzhi Lane (焉支巷子) — supported by sub-venues including the Shandan Horse Ranch, Mingma Manor and the Shandan section of the Great Wall National Cultural Park, forming a countywide network of cultural, commercial and tourism consumption.
A 2,100-Year Silk Road Town
Shandan has been a key stop on the golden section of the Silk Road since ancient times, with more than 2,100 years of county history dating to its establishment in the Western Han dynasty. Huo Qubing’s western campaigns, Emperor Yang of Sui’s western tour, and the parallel Han and Ming Great Walls all converge on this land. Huang Guojie (黄国杰), deputy secretary of the Shandan County Party Committee and county magistrate, said in his address that the county would take the event as an opportunity to push cultural and tourism development into deeper integration.
At the opening ceremony, Cai Huaye (才华烨), deputy director of Chinese National Geographic, released the premium Shandan tourism routes around the Hexi Corridor: a six-day, five-night Zhangye deep tour; a nine-day, eight-night “Hexi Corridor No. 1 Scenic Route 818 Check-in Tour”; and a Beijing-Shanghai-Shandan weekend fun tour. The routes take the Chaobola food brand as their core link, threading together landmark cultural and tourism resources such as Yanzhi Mountain, the Shandan Royal Horse Ranch and the Han-Ming Great Wall, blending heritage food experiences with nature and culture sightseeing. The launch ceremony for coordinated regional cultural-tourism development along the Hexi Corridor was held at the same time, with representatives from ten counties and banners — Qilian County, Alxa Right Banner, Minqin County, Yongchang County, Ganzhou District, Linze County, Gaotai County, Minle County, Sunan County and Shandan County — jointly pressing the launch device under a framework of shared resources, joint market development and shared branding.
Drama, Night Tours and Hanfu Strolls
As Shandan County Party Secretary Zhang Wei (张伟) declared the event open, the large original historical stage drama “Fengqi Hexi Yue Shandan” (风起河西·阅山丹) had its premiere. Divided into a prologue and four chapters, the production weaves together the Siba culture, the Han-Ming Great Wall, Huo Qubing’s western campaigns and Emperor Yang of Sui’s western tour, embedding local folk customs such as dragon and lion dances and Great Wall work chants, and presenting Shandan’s landscape and Silk Road heritage through light, song and dance. After the curtain fell, the “Night Tour of Yanzhi” immersive parade opened in Yanzhi Lane, with historical NPCs including Li Bai and Wang Wei walking the lanes amid intangible heritage performances, acrobatics and magic, while Hanfu garden strolls, touhu pitch-pot games, sachet making and poetry riddles drew residents and visitors into an encounter between past and present.
The star of the carnival is Chaobola, a stir-fried lamb specialty listed as a Zhangye municipal intangible heritage item in 2015 and said by local lore to have grown out of the military cooking of Huo Qubing’s Western Han campaigns, when soldiers used shields as woks and stir-fried meat over open fires. After dark, dozens of master stir-fryers stand at iron griddles, tossing fresh lamb and lamb offal with onions and green and red peppers at high heat as long iron spatulas flash and steam rises from the griddle surface. Over the centuries the street dish has become a driver of Shandan’s nighttime consumption and a calling card for the county. “The Chaobola here is especially fragrant,” said Zhao Yanling, a tourist from Liaoning. “My child usually doesn’t eat spicy food, but this chili tastes great.”
Markets, Craft Demos and a People’s Stage
At Zhixing Square, the “People’s Stage” mass concert drew crowds while the intangible heritage creative-products area and a specialty food experience zone spread across the plaza. In the creative-products area, heritage handcrafters from across the Hexi Corridor demonstrated their work on site; Sheng Pengyan (盛鹏燕), a municipal inheritor from Gaotai County, showed her straw-stalk paintings while noting that more and more young people love heritage creative products and that she would bring younger elements into her work. On both sides of the square, the “Silk Road Blooms” culture market and an agricultural-income, convenient-consumption supply market were busy, with paper-cutting and straw-stalk painting among the traditional crafts on display. Resident Yin Xiaoting came with friends for the lane night tour: “The whole street is thick with ancient atmosphere — you can watch heritage handwork up close and take photos with the parade. The pitch-pot games and riddles are great fun, and with folk music, night views and local snacks, you can feel Hexi folk culture right at your doorstep.” Cai Yanhao, a tourist from Qinghai, said he had seen the carnival promoted online and traveled over on purpose: “The Chaobola is authentic and the heritage performances are wonderful — this trip was worth it.”
What Follows Until August 22
The carnival’s activities continue through August 22 with the “Night Tour of Yanzhi” immersive parade and the “People’s Stage” concert series. At Mingma Manor, the second Shandan horse racing event, themed “Silk Road Horse Capital, Riding Dreams at the Reins”, features speed racing, mounted archery and endurance racing. At Xiandi Academy, an exhibition of historical relics and ancient books on forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation opens with three sections — great unity, great convergence and great solidarity. A Great Wall poetry gathering is set for the reviewing-stand square of the Xiakou ancient town, with performances including the Huteng dance, the song “Ancient Charm of Shandan” (古韵山丹) and the recitation “At the Foot of Yanzhi Mountain” (焉支山下). The second Qilian Mountains symphony concert and the annual results release of the “Across Mountains and Rivers: Meet Zhangye” cultural-tourism campaign round out a program spanning sport, heritage exhibitions and the arts.