Culture Tourism

International Food and Tour Festival held in Chengdu

By Huang Zhiling and Zhang Ao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-10-04 11:00

CHENGDU: The sixth China International Food and Tour Festival opened in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on September 26, featuring food from Germany, Spain, Turkey, Japan and Australia.

International Food and Tour Festival held in Chengdu

Dancers perform for the opening ceremony of the Sixth China International Food and Tour Festival in Chengdu, September 26, 2009. [chinadaily.com.cn]

It will last 25 days, making it China's largest and longest food festival.

The theme of the festival is "A City of Tasty Food and Colorful Life." Its opening ceremony was held in Chengdu's Happy Valley Theme Park, which features an artificial lake, ferris wheels, and a roller coaster, as well as a 5-meter high hot pot model. Free coupons worth 200,000 yuan ($29,412) will be distributed to visitors in the theme park so that they can taste all the food there.

More than 30 foreign ambassadors from 16 countries attended the opening ceremony, after a one-day trip to Qingcheng Mountain, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, as well as several other well-known scenic spots in Chengdu.

"The city and the food are fabulous, we try our best to recommend Chengdu as a city of fantastic food to the world," Chin Siat Yoon, Singapore's ambassador, said during the opening ceremony on behalf of all the other countries.

The festival is co-hosted by the National Tourism Administration of China, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Chengdu Municipal Government.