Jilin Songhua Lake Open-Water Fish Food Festival 2026 Kicks Off, Boosting Spring Cultural Tourism

On April 15th, the Information Office of Jilin Provincial People’s Government held a press conference to introduce details of the 2026 Jilin Songhua Lake Open-Water Fish Food Festival and spring cultural tourism activities. Responsible comrades from Jilin City, Jiaohe City, Huadian City, as well as Jilin Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism and Jilin Songhua Lake Administration answered reporters’ questions on the spot.

According to Jilin Daily, the Songhua Lake Open-Water Fish Food Festival has been held for 16 sessions, and this year’s event will run from April 18th to May 5th, covering the May Day holiday. Highlighting the interaction with Changchun modern urban agglomeration, the festival will set up a special area for intangible cultural heritage performances of Songhua Lake open-water fish on Xinmin Street in Changchun, showcasing and selling fresh fish, performing fishing and hunting culture, and displaying calligraphy and painting works.

In addition, sales points for Songhua Lake open-water fish will be opened in catering institutions such as Changchun Eurasia Shopping Mall and Xinxing Garden. Jiaohe City and Huadian City, as branch venues for the opening ceremony of the 2026 Jilin Songhua Lake Open-Water Fish Food Festival, will also launch a variety of rich products to attract tourists.

Focusing on three dimensions of "tasting spring flavors, enjoying spring scenery and attending spring dates", Jiaohe City will launch an exclusive experience period for "Qingling Live Fish" during the festival. It has designed three scenic routes, including the Qishan Valley Tour, the Romantic Flower Sea Check-in Tour and the Boating on the Lake Tour, and launched leisure activities such as the 2026 Northern China (Jiaohe) Camping Season to enrich spring cultural tourism products.

Huadian City will also present a spring feast integrating fish tasting, scenery appreciation and shopping for tourists through a series of measures, such as holding the opening ceremony of the open-water fish food festival, setting up special sales areas for open-water fish, connecting "fish tasting + scenery appreciation + exploration" premium routes with check-in spots, integrating the whole-region formats to create a spring consumption boom and holding themed art performances.

To comprehensively improve the quality of cultural tourism services and optimize tourists’ travel experience, Jilin City officially launched the "Dadongshan Water · Jixin Service" cultural tourism service brand this spring, aiming to create warm and down-to-earth exclusive cultural tourism services for tourists at home and abroad. According to China News Service, the city will further upgrade cultural tourism services with the concept of "treating tourists as ourselves".

On one hand, it will strengthen guarantees to create a safe and reassuring tourism consumption environment and improve the efficiency of cultural tourism services; on the other hand, it will optimize supply, allowing tourists to enjoy a number of warm services during the food festival, such as "joint tickets with gifts", "fish tasting direct buses" and "extended opening hours of cultural and museum venues".

It is understood that on April 18th, the opening day of the 2026 Jilin Songhua Lake Open-Water Fish Food Festival, the two branch venues in Jiaohe and Huadian will be launched simultaneously. As a cultural tourism card of Jilin City, Songhua Lake Scenic Area will focus on three directions this year: ecological food, premium routes and characteristic activities, comprehensively improving the visiting experience and integrating the delicious taste of fish, the beautiful scenery of the lake and mountains with universal joy.