Music is a highlight of the opening ceremony. [Photo provided to China Daily]

As the morning sun spills across the tiered courtyards connected by stone stairs at the Datang Gong (Tribute) Tea House in Yongxing county, the grand Tang-Dynasty (618-907)-styled architecture built along the mountainside instantly transforms into a vibrant living stage of craftsmanship, aroma, and artistry.

The rhythmic clink of chisels on stone, the gentle whoosh of calligraphy brushes, and the alluring scent of hand-ground tea and medicinal herbs have packed in visitors to the county in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Dressed in traditional attire, the gracefully poised inheritors patiently guided curious visitors through their rich legacies — offering handson experiences or sharing samples to delight their taste buds.

These events marked the opening day of the second quarter's intangible cultural heritage revival shopping month on April 20.

This national event is part of the yearlong intangible cultural heritage revival campaign to promote cultural consumption.

Ke Zhizeng elicits bouts of cheers and applause from the audience as he does stunts with a bamboo tray during the launch ceremony for the shopping month.

Dozens of identical dough discs lie motionless on its surface, blanketed by a layer of sesame seeds. Then, with a flick of his wrists, the cakes take flight, obeying some invisible orbital pull.

Midair, they flip with military precision before plunging back into the sea of sesame seeds.

"The whole point is to cover them in an even sesame crust," explains the man in his late 30s who has practiced the craft for more than a decade.

"The wrists must be as loose as willow branches, focus must be sharp as a cleaver, and rhythm must flow like a river," he explains to visitors who lay siege to his booth selling Shaoyongfeng sesame cakes, a delicacy from Zhejiang's Quzhou that dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Sesame wrapping is just one of 16 steps, such as lighting the charcoal stove, roasting sesame seeds, extracting sesame oil, kneading dough, mixing fillings, and shaping the pastries, in the traditional craft that was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2021.

The cake has a crispy shell that gives way to sweet red bean paste, its flavor deepened by wood-fired baking.

The right taste and texture lie in rigorous adherence to the traditional craft, which Ke says requires endless hours of training, including stoking charcoal ovens and hand-grinding sesame paste.

"Take the sesame coating for instance, when I began to throw them, the cakes either flew against the walls or stuck to my face," Ke laughs, recalling his disastrous early attempts.

It took him about three years to get the hang of it, he adds.

Ke's performances have drawn crowds to taste the tradition, especially young buyers.

"We have come up with sugar-free fillings, ranging from egg yolk to durian, which have been wildly popular," he says.

The brand's flagship store in Quzhou has received more than 10,000 orders on a daily basis, he says.

Ke is among more than 100 inheritors who have been invited to the shopping month program that features diverse activities across China, integrating local intangible cultural heritage resources with regional cultural characteristics.

The program showcases time-honored brands and classic domestic products alongside collaborative work between heritage inheritors and contemporary designers. It highlights creative products incorporating trendy design elements.

Through publishing intangible cultural heritage-themed travel routes, check-in locations, and spring outing maps, the initiative also encourages people to follow intangible cultural heritage on journeys. Various regions have combined music, cuisine, and folk customs to create immersive shopping experiences, according to the organizers.

The event aims to facilitate creative transformation and innovative development of cultural heritage and promote its integration with multiple sectors including tourism, cultural creativity, and digital technology.

A few hundred meters away, zongzi maker Wufangzhai based in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, uses a tea filling in some of the glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.

The new product brings together local agricultural products, ancient festival customs, and contemporary design related to the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival on May 31, says Gu Xiaofang, strategic marketing manager at the brand, which has existed for more than 100 years.

Its zongzi craft was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

The exterior of the box is decorated with colorful Xiuzhou Farmers' Paintings, a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage form known for its vivid colors and rustic symbolism.

"The painting style incorporates elements like the Dragon Boat Festival customs specific to Jiaxing," Gu explains. "It tells a story even before you open the lid."

Inside, the zongzi themselves offer a novel twist, infused with fragrant tea flavors.

"We noticed that buyers were becoming more health conscious and curious about lighter, more aromatic flavors," Gu says.

"Tea, being such an integral part of Chinese culture, seemed like the perfect bridge between heritage and innovation," she adds.

While the idea may seem simple, the execution was anything but. "One of the biggest challenges was how to retain the tea's aroma during the cooking process," Gu recalls.

"At first, we tried infusing the rice with brewed tea, but the fragrance didn't carry through."

After numerous rounds of experimentation, the breakthrough came by grinding tea leaves into fine powder and incorporating it directly into the filling.

"This method not only preserved the fragrance, but also added a richness that blends beautifully with traditional zongzi ingredients," she says, adding that the mellow bitterness of tea meets the savory tenderness of meat, held together by sticky rice that's soft but not mushy, fragrant but not greasy.

Although the tea zongzi gift box was just officially released this year, Gu says the company has seen growing consumer interest since early test runs back in 2018.

"The feedback we're getting now is that people appreciate not only the taste, but the story behind it," she says.

Among other most talked-about exhibits are traditional Chinese medicine-inspired drinks and beauty products.

Huqingyutang, a centuries-old pharmacy whose traditional Chinese medicine was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006, has come up with TCM-based snacks like small sesame balls and herbal coffee.

"Our core is to preserve and innovate upon TCM heritage and deliver it to consumers as part of a better lifestyle," says Yu Xiaoxiao, communication director with Huqingyutang.

"TCM is rich and profound, but we approach it with a lighter touch, so that it resonates more naturally with young people today," Yu explains.

A major innovation is the brand's TCM-infused coffee line. It blends the ritual of coffee drinking with the nourishment of herbs, such as five-year ginseng.

The result is a drink that satisfies modern tastes while staying rooted in Chinese wellness philosophy, Yu says. "We call it the 'three-master model' — a collaboration between herbalists, physicians, and baristas."

"The herbalist ensures efficacy, the physician maintains balance, and the barista makes sure it still tastes like coffee."

Over the past few years, the pharmacy's innovations have led to a steady growth in sales, with an annual increase of around 20 percent.

Shopping month forms part of China's broader strategy to revitalize traditional culture through modern commercial channels while meeting growing demand for quality cultural products and experiences.

Local governments across the country are expected to roll out distinctive versions of the program throughout the spring.

Lin Min, a visitor from Fujian province, says he wishes he had a bigger stomach to try all the snacks and drinks at the booths in the tea house in Changxing.

"This isn't just a shopping festival, but a learning journey through living heritage," he says.

He bought several creative cultural items such as handwoven fans and artisan snacks for his friends and family.

"It makes culture something you can touch, taste and take home," he says.