Guilin's 'Oriental Heritage Playground': The New China Travel Experience Where You Play Cuju, Weave Brocade and Race a Dragon Boat on Grass

The 'Oriental Heritage Playground' turning scattered crafts into one experience

Ask a foreign tourist what there is to see in China and the answer is easy: the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Guilin's karst mountains. Ask what there is to do, and the answer used to be vaguer. Guilin is trying to change that.

In late May, nearly 2,000 international travel executives from 67 countries and regions were invited to Guilin for the "Oriental Heritage Playground" (东方非遗游乐场) — a day-long experience put together by Trip.com Group where scattered heritage activities appear as proper playground attractions: cuju (ancient Chinese football with a woven rattan ball), Zhuang brocade weaving, calligraphy, tai chi and even dry-land dragon boat racing.

The idea, as People's Daily's China City News put it, is that visitors no longer want to just watch the scenery — they want to become part of it.

Why 2,000 travel executives flew to Guilin to play

The timing was deliberate. China now offers visa-free entry to nearly 80 countries, and 30.08 million foreigners entered visa-free in 2025, up almost 50% year on year. Guilin itself received 1.62 million inbound overnight visitors in 2025, ranking among China's top ten destinations.

But getting people in is only half the job. "Inbound tourism is shifting from traditional sightseeing to deep cultural experience," says Zhang Jianbin, chief strategy officer of CTS Travel. Liu Haiqiu, who has run inbound agencies for over 20 years, puts it more bluntly: "The world's expectations of China have changed. Travelers are looking for social value, personal experiences and novelty — not shallow check-ins."

Swiss hotel executive Andy, who tried brocade weaving at the playground, said: "It's amazing — nothing like this exists in my country. After holding these threads that have been passed down for a thousand years, I can understand my Chinese guests much better." Brazilian travel professional Carlos Tadeu Cunha spent the afternoon posting photos and videos to recommend China to his friends: "Personal experience is essential to truly understanding China." An American travel blogger, after tai chi and calligraphy, called it "really cool" and "wonderful".

What's inside: five ways to go hands-on

• Dry-land dragon boat racing — teams grab the inflatable boat by its dragon head and sprint across the lawn. No water required, maximum chaos.
• Cuju — kick a woven rattan ball the way players did over 2,000 years ago; the playground's foreign guests were lifting it with clean instep flicks.
• Zhuang brocade weaving — sit at a loom and thread colored yarn through the frame; slow, quiet, and the souvenir is a half-finished piece you made yourself.
• Calligraphy — a brush, a sheet of paper, and four characters like 桂林山水 ("Guilin's mountains and rivers").
• Tai chi (ba duan jin) — follow the slow eight-posture routine on the lawn; no experience needed.

Behind the scenes, Trip.com Group announced 15 billion yuan over five years to promote inbound travel to China, with a target of bringing 200 million international visitors. It has already opened 8,000-plus scenic areas to international travelers, deployed multilingual ticketing machines covering 280-plus sites, and helped 4.85 million foreign visitors buy high-speed rail tickets.

What this means for your next China Travel trip

For independent travelers, the takeaway is simple: heritage experiences are no longer scattered or hard to find — they are being packaged into bookable, one-day formats. In Guilin, the sample day looks like this: hike the Li River in the morning, spend the afternoon at a heritage playground (dry-land dragon boat, cuju, brocade, calligraphy, tai chi), then finish with an evening drone light show over the city.

Most of these activities cost little or nothing beyond entry to the venue — the kind of price-to-experience ratio that is hard to match elsewhere. Check chinapie.ai for Guilin and nearby heritage experience pages before you go.