During the May Day holiday, 33-year-old Dou Xin and several other young travelers joined a guided tour tracing the footsteps of Li Bai, a poet whose brilliance illuminated the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and beyond.
They visited historical sites and trod along cliffside plank roads in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, experiencing firsthand how Li Bai’s journey shaped both his character and his poetic style.
Such a deep dive into Chinese history and culture resonates with a growing number of today’s young people, who are increasingly flocking to ancient ruins, silent tombs and traditional villages.
As their cultural confidence grows, these young people want to reach out and touch the past, searching for inspiration, identity and a sense of wonder.
This trend was clearly visible during the 2026 May Day holiday travel period. Data from travel platform Qunar shows that the sharpest increases in hotel bookings were recorded in small cities with rich cultural heritage.
Hotel bookings in Sichuan’s Luzhou, a city renowned for its ancient towns and local cuisine, jumped 5.3-fold year on year, while Zhongshan, a city in south China’s Guangdong Province famous for its historic figures and local culture, saw a 4.3-fold increase.
Immersive cultural experiences, such as picking tea leaves in plantations, making traditional lanterns in ancient towns and joining poetry study tours, have become popular holiday choices among young travelers. Meanwhile, families with children prefer visiting historical sites and spending time in museums.
Riding this wave of growing enthusiasm, local authorities across the country are digging deeper into heritage sites to create engaging cultural journeys.
Take ancient villages in Guizhou Province, southwest China, as an example. Visitors to these villages can watch Miao ethnic dances, try their hand at crafting delicate bamboo instruments alongside intangible cultural heritage artisans, or spend the whole day viewing martial arts contests.
In central China’s Henan Province, meanwhile, Millennium City Park in Kaifeng offers a chance to stroll through this Song Dynasty (960-1127) capital, which has been brought back to life. At the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Tombs, also in Henan, visitors can dress in traditional Hanfu, join “time-traveling” guides who seem to have stepped out of the past, and learn about ancient burial culture via interactive puzzle-solving games.
Such surging demand hasn’t gone unnoticed by China’s travel agency industry. In recent years, travel agencies dedicated to cultural heritage tours have been popping up as a result.
One such agency is The Seekers, founded in 2023. According to its founder, Ding Manwen, the agency has already organized hundreds of cultural-heritage-focused tours, serving more than 120,000 tourists, around 60 to 70 percent of whom were young people.
Ding believes that younger generations are showing a markedly stronger interest in history and culture. “Young people want to understand the threads of civilization, religious beliefs and traditional social structures through first-hand, on-the-ground exploration,” she said. “As a result, destinations with real intellectual depth and cultural weight are resonating more strongly with them.”
Catering to the needs of young people, The Seekers has designed a series of activities that blend cultural richness with fun, ranging from overnight stays under the stars beside a temple to visits to ancient pagodas scattered across remote fields. All of which, Ding said, have significantly boosted young users’ participation.
So why are young people increasingly drawn to tracing the past? For Zeng Xin, an associate researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the pivotal driving force behind this growing trend is their ever-strengthening cultural confidence.
“Growing up in an era of flourishing Chinese culture, the younger generation is eager to embrace the classics and experience them in more modern, flexible and immersive ways,” she said.
In recent times, a steady stream of quality cultural content, including films such as “Ne Zha” and “Chang An,” cultural TV shows and hit games like “Black Myth: Wukong,” has sparked fervor among young audiences. Experts say these works have ignited a passion for history and reawakened cultural instincts that run deep in their veins.
Zeng also recognizes the deep emotional bond this generation has with historical figures. Many of these figures, she said, embody patriotism and moral character, serving as steady, lasting symbols of value.
“It’s not so much that they are ‘touring the ancient,'” Zeng noted. “Rather, they are ‘searching for the present.'” Through this dialogue with the past, she added, young people come to understand themselves and their own era better, while in this spiritual connection, they find strength.
When contemplating the journey tracing Li Bai’s footsteps, Dou came to a realization: true talent should never be confined by any frame.
“In today’s fast-paced society, we need to draw strength from Li Bai more than ever — to bravely pursue our own dreams,” Dou said.
Reference Link:- https://english.news.cn/20260505/9bfcc55a296a440db912a01e794109db/c.html