The three-day 16th Guangzhou Folk Cultural Festival, also known as the Boluodan Temple Fair, came to an end on Saturday in the city's Huangpu district, one of the birthplaces of the ancient Maritime Silk Road and a key innovative and high-tech industrial base of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province.

The event, with a spectacular opening ceremony and a series of ritual activities, brought bustling crowds back to the streets and made contributions to Maritime Silk Road tourism in the district, local officials said.

It attracted about 220,000 tourists from Thursday to Saturday and witnessed an inflow of more than 140,000 tourists on Saturday alone, they said.

The Boluodan Temple Fair, with a history of more than 1,400 years, is a folk event in Guangdong province to commemorate the legendary birthday of the South China Sea god and is, in fact, the largest temple fair in Guangzhou. It listed as one of China's national intangible cultural heritages.

A dance performance is organized at the Boluodan Temple Fair to commemorate the legendary birthday of the South China Sea god. ZHENG ERQI/CHINA DAILY

A total of 12 themed activities, including an intangible cultural heritage experience programs, exhibitions and a poetry fair, were integrated with Maritime Silk Road themed art performances to represent the long-standing prosperity of Guangzhou's navigation and trade during this year's event.

On the first day, a solemn procession of nearly 200 performers accompanied by drum music, carried offerings into the venue and conducted a prayer ceremony to the sea god.

This was one of the highlight moments of the Ancient Sea Worship Ceremony during the opening ceremony in which modern scripting techniques were used to recreate the grand scenes of ancient imperial officials, local people, and overseas merchants' worshipping the sea god.

The grand scene made the audience feel as if they had traveled through time, back to when people viewed the sea with awe.