Jiangsu Events

Jiangsu’s calendar follows the Chinese festival year with a strongly Jiangnan character — lanterns, gardens and seasonal food.

Qinhuai Lantern Festival — Chinese New Year, Nanjing

Held around the Confucius Temple on the Qinhuai river, this is among the oldest continuous lantern festivals in China, documented back to the Ming. For several weeks from New Year the temple quarter and the river are hung with thousands of lanterns — traditional forms alongside enormous modern installations — pleasure boats run on the river under them, and the surrounding streets fill with snack stalls. Buying a lantern to carry is part of it, and the crowds are immense.

Hairy crab season — October and November

Not a festival but the region’s defining seasonal event. Yangcheng lake’s crabs come into season, restaurants build menus around them, and the price and provenance of a crab become a serious matter of discussion.

Plum blossom — late February and March, Nanjing

The Plum Blossom Hill on Purple Mountain holds tens of thousands of trees and draws very large crowds for a few weeks, with a festival built around it.

Qingming and the tomb-sweeping season — early April

Families visit and clean graves, burn offerings and picnic, and it coincides with the best weather of the spring. In Jiangsu it also marks the start of the biluochun tea harvest in the hills by Lake Tai, where the very earliest picking — before Qingming — commands the highest prices of the year.

Kunqu performances — year round, Suzhou

The Kunqu Opera Museum and several small theatres stage excerpts regularly, and a short performance in a garden setting is the best introduction.