Yunnan's Thousand-Table Spring Banquet Kicks Off
Xinping County's annual flower festival launched with the "Thousand Table Millstone Banquet" featuring 1,623 tables and thousands of diners in a massive outdoor feast. The festival combines indigenous Yi and Dai music, traditional dress, and floral cuisine where visitors and locals connect over shared meals and song. This participatory spring celebration offers authentic cultural immersion through community dining.
The "Thousand Table Millstone Banquet," or "Mopan Yan," is a tradition of the Huayao Dai people, a branch of the Dai ethnic group known for their distinctive, colorful clothing. Unlike other Dai groups who typically live in stilt houses, the Huayao Dai traditionally build adobe homes and practice Animism rather than Buddhism. The banquet is the centerpiece of the annual flower festival, which in 2026 includes a spectacular show featuring 1,000 drones. This massive feast has been certified by the China World Record Association as the "world's largest banquet." In previous years, the event has drawn significant crowds, with over 13,000 people attending in 2019 to share in the communal meal. The 2026 celebration expanded to 1,600 tables, continuing its tradition of scale. The menu for the banquet showcases the unique local cuisine of Xinping County, which is heavily influenced by the natural bounty of the Ailao Mountains. Diners at the 2026 event were served a variety of specific regional dishes. These included local delicacies such as a soup pot made with donkey meat (毛驴汤锅), savory braised Yangwu liver, and freshly stir-fried pear flowers (炒棠梨花). The flower festival is a cornerstone of Xinping County's effort to transform its cultural and natural resources into economic growth. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the county saw over 29.6 million tourists, generating ¥29.8 billion in tourism revenue, with cultural tourism being a major driver. Events like the banquet are part of a broader strategy that includes promoting local intangible cultural heritage, such as Huayao Dai embroidery and pottery.
