Two actors perform a talk show during the Yangtze River Culture Festival. [Photo/zjgonline.com.cn]

The Yangtze River Culture Festival, an annual event held by Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in partnership with regions along the river, was recently acknowledged as an outstanding project by the National Rural Revitalization Administration.

Launched in 2004, the festival has been a continued success over the past 19 years. The event showcases the culture and history with strong regional characteristics in the Yangtze River basin, through a variety of activities such as seminars, promotional meetings, exhibitions, and performances.

To date, the festival has held more than 100 interregional free public cultural events that have drawn over 400,000 participants.

Last year, China started construction of the Yangtze River National Cultural Park, with Jiangsu being an important part of it. Zhangjiagang has since been pushing ahead with the construction of its section of the park to further promote the Yangtze River Culture Festival.