Shenzhen Festival Avenue boosts city's soft power

Shenzhen Festival Avenue is located on the Fuhua Road in  Futian District. It runs from east to west, spanning 1.6 kilometers, from the Caitian Road on the east to the Mintian Road on the west. This is the first public cultural district in China centered on festival culture.

“Let’s Smile” at UpperHills in Futian District. Photos by Lin Songtao

Shenzhen Festival Avenue covers the main commercial areas in Futian, including the district’s CBD business clusters, cultural venues, urban parks, high-end residential communities, and various unique urban spaces. It is surrounded by three major urban commercial complexes, four major business office complexes, and two main transportation hubs and subway stations.

“Childhood Dreamscape” is on display in central Futian.

“A Group of Swimming Trees” in central Futian.

The avenue offers a variety of activities encompassing dining, entertainment, leisure, tourism, and shopping, all supported by a rich cultural lifestyle experience integrated into a robust infrastructure. It reflects Shenzhen's comprehensive strength in urban economy and public culture.

A citizen interacts with “Block Party” created by Singapore’s Plug & Play near Shenzhen Festival Avenue in Futian District. The blocks on the screen can catch citizens’ movements and interact with them.

Shenzhen Festival Avenue boasts a first-class international environment for art, culture, exhibitions, music, and consumer services. In 2022, it was recognized as one of Shenzhen's "Top Ten Landmarks for Night Economy" and was featured twice on Shenzhen's hot list. In 2023, it was awarded the "Top Ten in the Greater Bay Area Tourism Industry," making Shenzhen Festival Avenue a prime cultural tourism destination in the Greater Bay Area.

Historical development

In 2019, Futian initiated a comprehensive enhancement project for transportation facilities and spatial environment in its central area, installing multifunctional smart poles, improving road quality, and optimizing traffic flow to create a safe, smooth, high-quality, and intelligent streetareas.

In 2020, Futian identified the Fuhua Road in the district to develop Shenzhen Festival Avenue, injecting elements of art, culture, exhibitions, music, and sports. The avenue connects major commercial complexes such as Ping An Finance Center,  COCO Park, LinkCity and One Avenue.

Lanterns at OCT Harbor are part of Glow Shenzhen 2023.

A brand created under great efforts of the CPC committee andthe district government of Futian, Shenzhen Festival Avenue was launched in November 2020.

Street culture vitalizing business

In August, 2021, a street culture festival was launched on the avenue. It was a creative attempt to introduce street culture into a business district for the first time and became a massive hit of summer. The creation of the new festival has lit up the business district, highlighted Shenzhen's characteristics, and strengthened the city's soft power.

A light installation from Glow Shenzhen at Sea World in Nanshan District.

By connecting large commercial complexes in the Futian CBD and taking advantage of the pleasant cultural atmosphere of areas around the Fumin Road, Shenzhen Festival Avenue has built itself a space that is "dramatic," "immersive" and "experiential," and introduced elements of art, culture and exhibition. In this way, the local night-time economy and the influence of surrounding business areas have been promoted.

The Yingge dance from Chaozhou and Shantou.

Highlighting itself as a local project with international outlook and standards, Shenzhen Festival Avenue integrated "street culture" into a business district in a creative way by introducing "street stars," "street creativity" and "street interactions" to the Futian CBD. With street culture and commercial complexes combined, the "street culture festival" is a "street carnival" with Shenzhen characteristics. 

Strengthening soft power

Shenzhen Festival Avenue positions itself as a place of art/ innovation/ vitality/ life, featuring the showcase of art in urban public spaces. It is dedicated to showing the glamor of the district and providing a platform for immersive experience of culture and art, so as to improve the cultural atmosphere of the district.

Performers from Macao present the drunken dragon dance Saturday during the parade along the Shenzhen Festival Avenue in Futian District. Photos by Lin Songtao

The Shenzhen Shatoujiao fish lantern dance.

The African drumming and dance.

As the city's most popular government initiative for the public's benefit, Shenzhen Festival Avenue has five major exhibition areas, twelve themed months and 112 themed events throughout the year, making it an art scene that never ends. With both regular art exhibitions and themed events, the avenue serves as a free and permanent art experience platform, where citizens can know more about the street culture and art lovers show their talents. Since everybody can have access to and learn artistic skills here, the avenue is a source of momentum and creativity for Shenzhen culture, helping the city stand out in the cultural soft power competition.

The Zhuang ethnic shoulder pole dance.

The Spanish flamenco.

Surrounding landmarks

Shenzhen Festival Avenue runs from east to west across the Fuhua Road, flanked by eight major commercial centers, including One Avenue, Link CentralWalk, and Wongtee Plaza, alongside multiple CBD office buildings and approximately 2 million square meters of commercial complexes. It is situated near notable Shenzhen landmarks such as Great China International Exchange Square, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, and Ping An Financial Center, as well as five-star hotels like The Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt, and Four Seasons. Ground traffic is organized smoothly, with underground connections through LinkCity and an aerial two-layer sky corridor system linking the surrounding areas, resulting in a three-dimensional commercial space composed of ground, underground, and aerial layers.

The cat-headed lion dancers from Heyuan, Guangdong.