Mid-Autumn Festival: Mainland China Tourists Flock to Hong Kong for Lantern Festival

Mainland China started a three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday on September 15, and many tourists took advantage of the holiday to travel to Hong Kong, experiencing the unique Mid-Autumn Festival atmosphere.

The Hong Kong Palace Museum was filled with mainland tour groups, with some tourists bringing their parents to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The scenery of Hong Kong’s characteristic attractions was a major draw, and they planned to spend the next two days exploring other places.

The Yuen Long Bridge Market in Hong Kong was a popular destination, with lanterns of various shapes and sizes attracting many tourists to check in and buy lanterns. Merchants reported that every year around the Mid-Autumn Festival, many people come to buy lanterns, and this year’s new lantern styles, such as pumpkin carriages and pet dogs, were particularly popular among tourists.

The Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival was held in Victoria Park and Tsing Yi Park in Hong Kong, featuring a unique lantern display, including a 12-meter-high “clothing” light group in the shape of Tang suits and cheongsams, a 7.5-meter-high “Art Tree of Life” installation showing about 750 student lanterns, traditional lanterns designed and made by local senior craftsmen in Hong Kong and craftsmen in Zigong, Sichuan, and cute panda-shaped lanterns. The festival also included song and dance performances, demonstrations of traditional handicrafts from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Chinese costume shows, and Mid-Autumn Festival markets.

Mainland tourists were drawn to the festival, with some saying they had known about the lantern festival during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and came with their families to queue up for photos with the Mid-Autumn lanterns.

Cui Dingbang, director general of the Hong Kong Tourism Promotion Association, predicted that the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday would attract many mainland tourists to Hong Kong, with the occupancy rate of Hong Kong hotels reaching 80% to 90%. He believed that traditional activities such as drone performances and Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance would be particularly attractive to short-distance tourists in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

With its unique lantern festival and traditional activities, Hong Kong is an ideal destination for mainland tourists during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.