Float parade

Date: September 18 (Sunday)

Venue: Weiqing Road and Qianjing Avenue in the Shihua area

The gala parade presents folk arts and cultures from China and abroad. It includes flowery floats with pretty girls from Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden, Chongming county, Fengxian district, and Shandong province, the Tibet autonomous region, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Macao, as well as some floats from Indonesia and Japan. The Indonesian float features its mascot garuda, and the Japan float is a giant bowl of ramen noodles.

Fruit picking

Date: September and October

Venue: fruit gardens in Luxiang and Langxia towns

Luxiang Town is the country's largest area for growing peento peaches (the "squashed" saucer-like peach) that's famous for intense flavor and lots of juice. Visitors can pick peaches in the orchards, with help of the local farmers.

Grape planting has been expanding. Along Jinlang Road from Luxiang to Langxia towns, there are orchards and fields of strawberries, cherries, watermelon, cantaloup, kiwi and jujube.

The two towns are like Shanghai's "back garden."

Group wedding

Date: September 28

Venue: Fengjing Town and West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province

Every year the ancient water town hosts a traditional group wedding party for couples who are interested in Chinese folk culture and want their big day to be different. The party now has become a classic in the Shanghai Tourism Festival.

Brides dressed in red satin and bridegrooms will take a boat ride in the town's crisscrossing rivers.

This year the wedding party goes to West Lake, renowned for the love story about the white serpent sorceress Bai Suzhen and mortal scholar Xu Xian.

Twenty couples will tie the knots.

Seafood Festival

Date: through October 10

Venue: Jinshanzui fishing village

Located on Hangzhou Bay and the East Sea, the village is famed for its seafood among city diners. On holidays and weekends, many people drive from the city centers to the beach to enjoy the mouth-watering fresh seafood. They choose their own dinner and direct the many cooks.

Edited by Chen Zhilin

Source: Shanghai Daily