If you are in Shenzhen this month and want a Qixi (七夕) evening that costs nothing, Honghuashan Park (红花山公园) in Guangming District is the place to go. The Honghuashan Qixi Romantic Night opened on the evening of August 15 with a Hanfu parade, a Chinese-style market and a lawn concert, and it stays free to the public through August 31.
40 Hanfu Enthusiasts on Parade
The parade stepped off at 6:30 p.m. from the archway at the main gate. More than 40 Hanfu wearers in Quju (曲裾), Ruqun (襦裙) and Mamianqun (马面裙) robes walked the central axis around the lawn, with quick classical dance and instrument performances breaking out along the route, so the crowd moved from scene to scene.
Beside the parade route, a corner of the lawn re-creates a scene from the Tang dynasty collection Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi (开元天宝遗事). The book describes spring outings in Chang’an: “The young women of the capital, strolling in the fields, met famous flowers and spread mats on the grass, hanging red skirts one after another to use as banquet canopies.” The park restages that skirt-canopy banquet with red skirts as drapes and grass as mats; visitors sit and talk, those in Hanfu get better photos, and the Matchmaker God (月老) walks the lawn tying red threads for guests. Stamp cards collected at the scene earn small free gifts.
From the entrance plaza to the climbing steps, more than 30 stalls line the route in three groups: ancient-style food, with tanghulu, traditional cakes and herbal tea drinks; Hanfu accessories, from hairpins and dangling hairpins to round fans; and intangible-heritage handicrafts, where velvet flowers, sugar painting, paper-cutting and bamboo weaving stalls draw the biggest crowds. Hands-on options include round-fan painting and sachet making, plus pitch-pot and lantern-riddle games with small prizes. Warm lanterns, oil-paper umbrellas and bamboo light strings give every corner of the market a festive glow.
Three Nights of Music on the Lawn
The music side of the evening runs on the “Sunset Stage” at the south entrance lawn, a wooden frame dressed with bamboo, flowers, poetry screens and warm lighting that casts an afterglow over the grass. Bands play classic love songs and light pop as the evening breeze carries the sound; audiences sit or stand on the lawn and let the night roll. The concert holds three sessions, on August 15, 16 and 19 (Qixi itself), each from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For photo hunters, the park is dotted with Chinese-style set pieces: a starry-sky light canopy, poetry screens, a lantern corridor and poetry cards hung in trees, plain text by day and glowing poetry at night. Three social topics are running for official reshare — “#RomanticHonghuashan,” “#ConfessionsBeneathMingheTower” and “#WearingHanfuToTheLawnFestival” — and a NIO booth at the park hands out Qixi gifts to visitors who check in.
Neighbors Stage Their Own Qixi Nights
Gongming Subdistrict Office organizes the event with the Shenzhen SEZ Construction Garden and Ecological Technology Group and the Guangming District Civil Affairs Bureau. Around the park, nearby venues add their own Qixi touches: Hongmu Ancient Town (红木古镇) holds an “Immortal Qixi, Dragon Shines at Hongmu” (仙缘七夕·龙耀红木) evening on August 16 with the original Cantonese opera “The Story of Chen Xiangu” (陈仙姑的故事) played through its streets; the Daqianli (大仟里) mall teams up with the grilled-fish chain Tanyu on a “A Thousand Li in Wuxi” (仟里·游巫溪) pop-up; and August 15 sees the Shatoujiao fish lantern dance (沙头角鱼灯舞), a tradition more than 300 years old, performed nearby.
A practical note: go in Hanfu if you own a set, and time the visit for the evening, when the light installations come alive. The market and concert run nightly until August 31, and both stay free.