The lantern carnival of Pang Village, called dancing lantern carnival as well, is the custom of Pang Village in Shuikou County and the mass artistic folk activities held in the 13th of the first month in lunar calendar.

Pang Village, where all people are given the family name “kuang”,has 48 natural smaller villages containing 15 thousand people. Resident from the villages and the folk artists make the huge flower lantern (more than 10/3 m high) by bamboo, wood and colorful paper as well as the delicate decoration. On the lantern day, the lantern teams, comprised by youngsters and with the dancing lions, “cruise” to every village. What you will see on that day is the atmosphere of happiness. The strong youths, shouldering the flower lantern, dance everywhere in each village under the Chinese traditional instrument and firecracks.What’s more,many local people working outside and the overseas Chinese will see the lantern carnival even traveling far.

This custom, with 500-year history, is said to be stemmed from Ming Dynasty. We can see the black stone mountain around the Pang Village, where the shapes of the mountain resemble the “five breasts”(elephant lion tiger bull and goat).Therefore it is called the place of five breasts.Kuangyisheng(maybe the descendant) migrated and settled down here from Nanxiong,Guangdong in 1368,however,it was still in poor population and industry. It is said that the four breasts(except for the king lion who was languid therefore it ignored what the other four have done) did harm to the villagers, and things got worst on 13th of the first month on each year. Therefore Kuangyisheng chose 13th of the first month as the lantern day and he urged the villagers from all villages(the people who worked outside should leave after the lantern day) to make triple-head mega flower lantern and played the Chinese traditional instrument in order to wake the lion king up that the lion can shock the four breasts and remove the disaster, eventually to give the dwellers prosperous lives and industry.Afterwards,the custom passed down year by year.


Also known as Octave Class and Gongs and Drums cupboard, Octave Gongs and Drums turned up from Guards of honor and road-show in the form of folk music in Qing Period. Now, Octave Gongs and Drums is the entertainment of marriage or worship. It was named Octave Gongs and Drums for It is formed with more than eight kinds of folk instruments including percussion, string, plucked string music, bamboo music, especially gongs and drums cupboard. Gongs and Drums ususlly is a 1.2 metres wide and 5 feets long cabinet which contains big gong and sand drum. It imitates canton opera’s Sheng, Dan chamber with little or large suona. Other musical instruments is used to be accompaniment. It ususlly plays Famous music, Guangdong music, and folk music. Tune is smooth, rhythm is sprightly, and style is light. The scene atmosphere is hot, happy and ceremonious. Funeral plays show a sadness emotion. The number of Octave Gongs and Drums team is unlimit and a gongs and drums cupboard can make up an Octave Gongs and Drums in general.


The rivers in the city of Kaiping are closely distributed forming a net where lives many people. These people settling on the rivers in this area, called Dan Jia, make a living on fishing and live a aquatic life with special customs.

It is said that since the end of Ming dynasty, on the Lunar August 11th every year the annual net market has been held in Lou Gang Yu in Changsha without discontinuance. Right before the net market time, the fishermen and manufacturers in the neighboring cities, such as Shunde, Xinhui, Gaohe, Xinxing, Dianbai, Enping, Taishan, Yangchun and Yangjiang, transport the nets to the market continuously, waiting for sales. The customers from the outside cities and provinces also come in troops and sleep outside all night, crowed till the dawn.

In the stalls of the market there are all kinds of nets like the big reticulum net as well as the small shrimp cages and shrimp buckets, which actually make up a world of nets. The usually quiet town becomes rather prosperous. Especially during 9:00 am to 11:00 am the buying and selling come to a climax, which makes the market too crowed to move. The shoppers are made up of the local people as well as ones from the outside cities and provinces. Nowadays the manufacturers have developed the home-delivery service and could transport the goods, which have reached a deal on the market, to each county, city and province. Therefore the net market in Lou Gang is widely known far and wide.