On January 26, Aoshang Village of Aoshang Town, Suxian District reappeared the traditional "Annual Meeting" activities. An endless stream of tourists came to attend the 4th Annual Meeting of "My Year, Aoshang Annual Meeting" and the Industrial Poverty Alleviation Fair to purchase authentic New Year goods such as flower sets, sugar flowers, rice cakes and salted ducks.

There are more than 50 houses of Qing Dynasty style and traditional brick and wood structure in Aoshang ancient village, which are one of the most well preserved ancient buildings in Chenzhou up to now. It was listed in the fourth batch of Chinese traditional villages in 2016. Since the Tang Dynasty, there has been the custom of "Annual Meeting" before the Lunar New Year.

There were 310 exhibition booths, featuring a special annual commodity trading area and a targeted poverty alleviation area. The purpose of the event was to arouse tourists' overall memory of the traditional Chinese New Year custom culture by tapping and integrating traditional and non-heritage cultural resources. In the targeted poverty alleviation area, farm products such as black goats, alpine cattle, chickens and ducks raised by poor households attracted a large number of tourists to buy, and soon sold out." By the time I finished my tour and went back to buy chickens from poor families, his chickens would have been sold out." Chenzhou people Lin Ping said regretfully.

On January 26, the festive couplets and red lanterns were attached to the ancient houses of Qing Dynasty in Aoshang Ancient Village of Aoshang Town, Suxian District. The 4th Annual Meeting of Aoshang Ancient Village was held here.

"The popcorn candies are delicious. Give me 3 kilograms!" There were a lot of customers competing to buy popcorn candies in front of the popcorn booth.

"This popcorn candies are made of newly made popcorn, peanuts, black sesame, etc., and then fried with maltose.They taste very sweet and fragrant." Sister Li, the producer, said.

Next to the booth selling Fuzi Meat was also crowded with customers, and the price of nearly 50 yuan per kilogram did not stop everyone's enthusiasm for buying. A customer Mr Liu told reporters that the Fuzi Meat was delicious and he planned to buy more this time.

"Our Fuzi Meat is made from local pork, tasting very good." The booth owner talked and let the reporters taste it.　

At the Annual Meeting, visitors can not only buy "local New Year's goods" such as chickens and ducks, but also watch wonderful literary performances such as dancing, Hunan Kunqu Opera, and experience the pleasure of making sets of flowers and shaking the rice cakes.

Visitors experience making sets of flowers.

At the same time, more than a dozen intangible cultural heritage sticker embroidery works were also exhibited at the Annual Meeting, which attracted a lot of praise from tourists. In the paste embroidery experience area, sticker embroidery teacher Tan Xiaoling was patiently guiding the visitors to make sticker embroidery.

Sticker Embroidery Works

Zeng Xixuan, a student at City No.3 Primary School, said that the sticker embroidery looked simple and the production was complex, but she thought it was worth experiencing after seeing its finished products.

"Come here to attend the Annual Meeting, visit ancient villages, buy New Year goods and so on, and gain a lot." Mr. Kuang said.

According to reports, since the Tang Dynasty, Aoshang Ancient Village has had the custom of " Annual Meeting" before the Lunar New Year. The Annual Meeting lasted until 27, with more than 310 booths, which effectively promoted local agricultural products sales.

After the tourists bought the New Year's goods, they went into the ancient village to take pictures and visit one after another.