What impressed Ma Ke, one of the first diners at the show, was a "lotus flower" floating in the fungus soup.

Ma, who heads an art theater company in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, says he ate the flower and thought it was made of wheat. Later, the staff told him it was made of fish.

"No wonder the texture was so smooth," he says.

Sun Yanbin says a mood of auspiciousness and blooming Hibiscus flowers are two of the dinner show's keynotes that convey good hospitality and accentuate Xi'an's cultural accumulations over time.

The hotel's neighbor, Tang Paradise, is a tourist complex that was once an imperial garden where Hibiscus flowers were believed to grow in large quantities.

The dinner show addresses the city's intensified integration of tourism experiences and creative cultural products.

Figures released by Shaanxi's culture and tourism bureau earlier this year show that in 2024, the province received 817 million domestic visits and 467,700 inbound visits.

Sun Yanbin says that to better cater to people's ever-changing needs, they will continue to upgrade the content and dishes for the dinner show "about two to three times a year".

He adds that foreign language subtitles are also in the making and will be added soon.