The 26th Hohhot Zhaojun Culture Festival opened on August 15 and runs through August 30. Built around the theme “Millennium of Zhaojun Harmony, a Shared Rendezvous in the Green City,” the festival links the Zhaojun Museum, the Chilechuan Grassland (敕勒川草原), Saishang Old Street (塞上老街) and several shopping districts into a single program of performances, night tours, specialty markets, grassland events and a consumption carnival.
Since August 15, the Zhaojun Museum has run a 60-minute immersive walk-through live show on its outdoor grounds. The route combines waterproof laser projection and dynamic mist imaging into a 360-degree panoramic light loop, with costumed NPC interaction points set along the way to keep visitors moving “story by story.” The museum runs a Twin Cities Fine Goods Market alongside the show, pairing products from Xingshan County in Hubei Province, the hometown of Wang Zhaojun (王昭君), with Hohhot’s grassland-themed cultural goods.
Free Nights at the Museum
An August 17 promotional event laid out the festival’s public-benefit program. “The festival stays affordable and open to everyone, and several major performances are free of charge,” said Xiao Xiao (肖霄), who heads the external liaison office of the Hohhot Municipal Culture, Tourism, Radio and Television Bureau. On August 22 and 23 the museum presents public-benefit performances and cultural showcases, including a recreation of the opening ceremony on the night of August 22, using lasers, holographic projection and mist imaging on an immersive outdoor stage.
Across the city, the “Meet Zhaojun at the Corner” series drops into museums, the Kuangxiangzi (宽巷子) food street and fashion blocks. The mobile shows feature ethnic song and dance, horse-head fiddle playing and Hanfu flash mobs, with no stage and no tickets, so street-corner audiences meet the tradition without planning ahead.
From August 28 to 30, Saishang Old Street stages the immersive parade “Zhaojun Beyond the Frontier,” performed jointly with the Xingshan Zhaojun Art Troupe of Hubei. The historical narrative plays out directly on the ancient street, turning the lane into a moving theatrical corridor. A “Zhaojun Style” consumption carnival starts at the same time, with discount packages at Zhenhua Plaza (振华广场) and other commercial landmarks covering dining and cultural retail.
Grassland Games and a Dessert Festival
Grassland events thicken the program. On August 22, the Chilechuan Grassland holds a collective wedding themed “Meeting at the Oboo, a Rendezvous in Green City”, with the grassland scenery as backdrop. The Dahei River Military Theme Park (大黑河军事主题公园) runs the Joyful City Naadam with daytime archery, horse racing and wrestling, and night shows of fire-pot performance and sparking iron flowers, plus a grassland electronic music program.
On the commercial side, Inner Mongolia’s first dessert festival lands at MixC from August 21 to 23 with more than 80 bakery brands, 97 percent of them entering Inner Mongolia for the first time, alongside several “Zhaojun exclusive” sweets. East Wanda Plaza opens a dairy market with fresh milk, milk skin and milk tofu across the grassland dairy range.
Twenty-Plus Years of Iteration
The festival’s roots reach back more than two decades, when Zhaojun commemorations were local temple fairs. In 2024, the edition paired with the 10th China Museum Expo drew 5.7757 million visits and 11.677 billion yuan in tourism revenue, up 12.22 percent and 44.48 percent year on year. In 2025, the city added a Zhaojun Culture Week with limited-edition products. Hohhot keeps building the Zhaojun cultural IP as a long-term driver of its tourism and culture industries, with the 2026 edition’s program running through the end of August.