“Yellow croaker kite” of Ningbo shows up in Weifang Kite Carnival

Ningbo, as one of the elected cities as the "Cultural Capitals of East Asia", was invited to participate in the 41st Weifang International Kite Festival and the opening ceremony of the 2024 Weifang Kite Carnival, on April 20. With its "yellow croaker kite", Ningbo aimed to attract Weifang citizens and tourists to visit Ningbo.

As a well-known cultural and tourism event, the Weifang International Kite Festival is deeply integrated with the Weifang Kite Carnival, achieving the normalization of kite themed activities throughout the year. Meanwhile, in order to better combine the Kite Festival with the high-quality local cultural and tourism resources in Weifang, some related activities have been held, such as the Weifang Activity Year of the 2024 Cultural Capitals of East Asia and the 2024 Xiashan Lake Marathon race.

On the morning of April 20, there was a large crowd at the World Kite Park, the flying venue of the festival. At first, the attending guests jointly flew the "Creative Dragon Kite of Weifang" and signed the city name on the scales of the dragon kite. Then the 20th World Kite Championships began. 509 kites from 46 countries and regions participated in the competition. Various kinds of kites could be seen, in the shapes of dragon, train, Monkey King and even "Fuzai", an internet celebrated police dog, etc. The kites in the sky and the crowd at the park made up a spectacular scene.

What was worth noting is the customized kite brought by the Ningbo delegation. This is a golden "yellow croaker kite", which is over two meters wide and 13 meters long. With carbon rods, bamboo, and checked silk, the kite took two masters four days to complete. When the wind came, the two masters raised it high, and one person held the spool at the other end. With their coordination, the kite flew into the sky successfully.

Ningbo is a prosperous coastal city. Among the top ten traditional famous dishes in Ningbo, yellow croaker serves as the main ingredient for two. It is also a classic ingredient in some other featured local dishes. That is, there has been a long tradition of loving yellow croakers by the people in Ningbo.

Meanwhile, "come and be happy", the new tourism image slogan of Ningbo has also appeared on kite. As is known, Ningbo is famous for the Maitreya Buddha with a smiling mouth, and it is also a city that has won 14 consecutive titles for the "Happiest Cities in China". The delicious Ningbo cuisine and the refreshing beauty of Ningbo's scenery are also evidence of the slogan.

Reportedly, the selection of "Cultural Capitals of East Asia" is a medium - and long-term strategic project jointly implemented by China, Japan, and South Korea. Its aim is to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in culture, art, tourism, and other fields through the linkage of high-quality cultural and tourism resources between cities, enhance mutual understanding and respect of cultures, and develop an East Asian cultural community. Since Ningbo was selected as one of the "Cultural Capitals of East Asia" in 2015, it has focused on three major aspects of culture: book reading, film and television, and music. To comprehensively boost local cultural projects and fully strengthen East Asian cultural exchanges, Ningbo has carried out over 30,000 cultural activities, attracting over 80 million people. It has successfully hosted such major landmark events as the 15th Asian Art Festival and the first Asian Oceanic Tourism Development Conference. A number of cultural and artistic programs have been carefully selected to to to Japan and South Korea for cultural exchanges, attracting a foreign audience of over 400,000 people.