On the evening of July 31, inside the atrium of Shenzhen’s KKONE mall, the mellifluous tune of the Yue opera aria “Eighteen Farewells” rose, and two newlyweds in Song-style wedding robes walked out and bowed to each other as shoppers raised their phones. Shenzhen News reported on August 3 that Xitang Ancient Town had, in effect, moved Jiangnan’s waterways into the city’s downtown: the “2026 Xitang Tourism (Shenzhen) Promotion and Cultural Tourism Investment Event,” under the tagline “Shenzhen’s Affection, Xitang,” ran across two venues in two days, with the second stop on August 1 outside the Shenzhen Press Group’s new media tower.
The liveliest corner of the venue was not the stage but the interactive booths. Lines formed at the spinning wheel, where winners carried off Xitang souvenirs or town tickets; the heritage display zone drew browsers with Pankou knots, paper-cutting and woodblock prints; and travel advisors were surrounded by visitors customizing “Hanfu + night tour” or “opera + food” itineraries. Mr. Zhou, a Shenzhen resident born after 1990, stayed through the whole presentation. Having visited Zhejiang seven or eight times, he said: “I love the pace of life there. Shenzhen is too fast; Xitang feels slow and steady — it calms you down, and it is full of everyday warmth.” He plans to photograph the spots where Jay Chou filmed the music video “Passerby at the World’s End.” Another visitor, a Shenzhen woman born after 2000 who goes by the pseudonym Xiaozhou, said she was drawn to Xitang’s Hanfu scene, music festivals and “Rice” fan IP, and most looks forward to cherry-blossom season. Gao Yucheng, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Xitang Tourism Culture Development Co., framed the pairing this way: “Shenzhen is the capital of innovation, embodying Chinese speed; Xitang is a dreamland of waterways, guarding a thousand years of poetry and everyday life. That contrast is exactly the fertile ground for our cooperation.”
Xitang’s cultural brand is built on participation, not display. The Xitang Hanfu Culture Week, now in its 13th edition, has drawn more than a million tongpao (fellow Hanfu enthusiasts) in total, and the town’s 110-plus Hanfu photo studios offer full-service packages from costume rental and styling design to professional photography. In 2023 the culture week made its debut at the 18th ICIF in Shenzhen, bringing Hanfu culture into the Greater Bay Area’s view; late last year, Jiaxing Nanhu Airport opened and counted Shenzhen among its first routes, making the Bay Area a key growth market for Xitang beyond Zhejiang. The 2026 Yangtze River Delta Gu Xidong Opera Arts Week delivered 164 performances in six days and drove 203 million yuan in tourism revenue. An upcoming Yue opera musical, “Flowers at Night, a Thousand Faces,” is the town’s latest collaboration with novelist Nanpai Sanshu (南派三叔), using a young IP to break the traditional stage out of its niche.
This summer Xitang runs “quiet” and “loud” in parallel. The Summer Soundwave season is in full swing — strolling the town by day and dancing to live music at night has become the new ritual for Gen Z. The “Xitang x The Lost Tomb” IP experience keeps expanding: the immersive garden party “Ten Years of Story-Boats: Enter the Scroll of Xitang” launched in August, turning the town into a walkable world from The Lost Tomb — visitors pick up the August 17 Rice Festival explorer handbook, unlock missions tied to five protagonists including Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling, and trade completed stamps for limited-edition merchandise and prize draws. The “slowness” has concrete scaffolding too: more than 700 homestays and inns, over 400 dishes certified under the “Ten Fine Dishes” food brand, 60-plus themed bars, a thousand-meter misty covered corridor, 27 ancient bridges and 122 alleyways. When Shenzhen’s speed meets Xitang’s slowness, the town is betting on a younger, more varied version of itself this summer.