(Video link: https://youtu.be/GlnCabKxj_s)
Ninghua Shibi Hakka ancestral rituals (Photo by Yang Weichun)
Nestled in the mountains of the central-western part of Sanming, on the eastern foothills of the Wuyi Mountains, a cultural corridor carrying the traces of the Hakka people’s millennia-long migration is blossoming with vitality, following the trajectory of cultural and tourism integration outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Sanming served as a crucial transit point and an important settlement where the Hakka ancestors flourished during their southward migration, thereby witnessing the formation and growth of the Hakka ethnic group. The Hakka culture of Western Fujian is the crystallized life wisdom and civilization accumulated by the Hakka pioneers over their 2,000-plus years of migration. This June, the Hakka Culture (Western Fujian) Ecological Protection Area was officially designated. This marks a vital milestone for Sanming City since the 14th Five-Year Plan began, demonstrating its commitment to deepening cultural and tourism integration and coordinating the synergistic development of cultural undertakings and the tourism industry. It is a vibrant practice of the philosophy of “protection first, holistic protection, seeing people, objects, and life,” promoting the dynamic inheritance of the Hakka cultural lineage and industrial upgrading.
Since the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Sanming has integrated Hakka cultural ecological protection into its overall development strategy, organically linking it with major strategies such as the Long March National Cultural Park and the High-Quality Development Demonstration Zone for the Minxi Revolutionary Old Area. The city has invested approximately 2.8 billion RMB in construction funds, completed 94 facilities for Intangible Cultural Heritage(ICH) inheritance and experience, and successfully registered 260 ICH representative projects. This has forged a development path where cultural protection, dynamic inheritance, and industrial revitalization are mutually complementary, transforming the millennia-old Hakka culture into the core driving force for the high-quality development of Sanming’s culture and tourism.