A carnival for foodies

Deeply rooted in Chinese culture for centuries, a household proverb says "food is people's livelihood". Fast forward to modern-day Beijing, the 2023 Food Festival, a nationwide event running until December, kicked off on Wednesday.

Under the guidance of the consumer goods industry division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the event will hold a total of 85 activities, involving over 4,000 companies and 24,000 types of foods across the country.

In addition, the festival will launch a food culture tour, which includes a series of sectors such as releasing a documentary on foods originally produced in the country, hosting a short video competition on food culture, and organizing 10,000 livestream anchors to share food stories online.

The documentary consists of 10 episodes, with each one telling the stories of iconic food from one city. Through discovering, tasting, and demystifying these mouthwatering products, it aims to further accelerate the intensive aggregation of local food industries by integrating stories behind the food with local cultures and tourism.

During the launching ceremony, two reports on food consumption trends, respectively released by Taotian Group and Douyin, said that Chinese consumers tend to purchase more nutritious, healthy and refined foods.