The fourth Chinese Flower-Drum Lanterns Song and Dance Festival and the ninth Anhui Provincial Flower-Drum Lanterns Fair opened at Longhu Stadium in Bengbu city on the evening of Sept 27.

Jiang Zehui, deputy director of the CPPCC Population, Resources and Environment Committee, attended the opening ceremony. Cao Zhenghai, standing member of the CPC Committee of Anhui province and director of the Anhui publicity department, declared its opening.

Since 2006 flower-drum lanterns were recorded in the first list of national intangible cultural heritage items. This was the third time Benbu has hosted the festival. This year's theme focuses on "showing red flower-drum lanterns and building a new Bengbu". The festival was composed of a theatrical performance during the opening ceremony, an original ecological flower-drum lantern show, cultural industry investment events and other activities.

At the same time, Bengbu also launched the ninth Anhui Flower-Drum Lanterns Fair, the sixth Flower Expo in Anhui province, and the fourth Bengbu Investment and Trade Fair.

The Flower Expo on Sept 28 showed the development results of flowers, seedlings and related industries through a series of activities including the Flower Industry Forum, bonsai art competition and selection of flower production bases. The fourth Bengbu Investment and Trade Fair attracted 287 well-known enterprises and 781 businesspeople from home and abroad.