Liaocheng rounded up its 7th Cucurbit Culture Art Festival which ran from October 11 to 13, in coordination with the 10th China Art Festival held in Shandong.

The theme of this art festival was "travelling along the cucurbit town, tasting the cucurbit culture." The sales and exhibition attracted more than 300 merchants from Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Liaoning, Tianjin, Harbin, Rizhao, Qingdao and Liaocheng, reaching a trade volume of more than 6 million yuan, with signed contracts worth more than 80 million RMB. The festival also staged the Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo in Liaocheng, the "Cucurbits on lens" photographic exhibition and several performances by different clubs.

Liaocheng is a small city in Shandong province renowned for its water landscape in northern China, its long history and the well-known Grand Canal that flows from Beijing to Hangzhou.