Xikou, through the sugarcane lanes
The night of the sixteenth of the first month, at Xikou in Linxi, Xiangqiao, Chaozhou: from each household someone stands along both sides of the village road holding a leafy sugarcane, a lantern hung at the tip, until they join into a lane of cane; the procession passes through between cane and lights. It entered the tenth batch of Chaozhou’s municipal heritage in 2026, and in the same year the second part of CCTV’s The Journey of Sugarcane filmed it.
Four photographs of the 2023 crossing, taken on the sixteenth of the first month, from posts by the Douyin user @许不仙 (street photography); used only to introduce this session, and withdrawn if the author asks.
1. One night, seven villages
In 2026 it fell on the evening of 4 March, the sixteenth of the first month, and by seven the sides of the village road were already full. Villages one to five of the Xikou district each put on a turn: hanfu in the first, yingge in the second, lion dance and the double-billed goose in the third, twin dragons and the god of wealth in the fourth, a lantern float in the fifth. New this year was a joint performance by the administrative villages, which made the file longer than in past years.
From seven that evening gongs, drums and firecrackers went on until the crowd dispersed; the report gives no closing time.
| Year | Lunar date | Gregorian |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 16th of the 1st month | 21 February 2027, Sunday |
| 2028 | 16th of the 1st month | 10 February 2028, Thursday |
| 2029 | 16th of the 1st month | 28 February 2029, Wednesday |
| 2030 | 16th of the 1st month | 18 February 2030, Monday |
| 2031 | 16th of the 1st month | 7 February 2031, Friday |
The Gregorian column is a calendar conversion and does not mean it will be held that way; no announcement for 2027 or later has been seen.
2. Why sugarcane, and why lanterns
The cane carries two meanings: sweetness joint upon joint, rising. Leafy stalks stand on both sides with a lantern tied at the tip, and people stand holding them — the lane is not built as scenery but stood up household by household.
In Teochew, the word for lantern sounds the same as the word for a male child. Households that have had a son hang lanterns by the number of boys, which is the family’s own affair and the most concrete layer of the thing: how many lanterns are hung tells the village how many mouths were added that year.
3. From the genealogy to the heritage list
There are two accounts of its origin: the district government and CCTV give over a hundred years, beginning in the Qing; the Xikou Liu genealogy records it from the middle and late Ming, flourishing in the Daoguang reign, when Xikou grew a great deal of cane and the cane lane was also where families compared their crop.
Before 1965 it was led by the Liu clan head; then it stopped for a time and was revived in the early 1980s, fixed on the night of the sixteenth of the first month, and has not been interrupted since. In 2026 it was entered in the tenth batch of Chaozhou’s municipal heritage.
That year brought two extensions: a permanent cane-lane display along the bank of the North Stream, and a stretch reproduced beside the Baihua terrace at the north end of the old city’s memorial arch street, where it can be walked at any time without waiting for the sixteenth.
Getting there: the nearest station is Chaoshan, for Xikou in Linxi, Xiangqiao. Once the cane lane fills there is no getting in or out, so arrive an hour early. In festival time village roads often run one way or are closed at short notice, and a navigation estimate excludes parking and the walk in; a night session often ends after nine, and the way back should be checked against the year’s timetable rather than reasoned from past experience.
4. Where to stand
Two layers: how past reporting describes it, and where this site suggests standing.
As past reporting describes it. The cane lane is stood up by each household and the file passes through it; fireworks and firecrackers go off along the way; the report gives no fixed viewing area and no cordon.
An editorial note. To photograph the lane as a whole, stand outside the entrance and wait for the moment the file turns in; once the lane fills there is no getting in or out, so do not push into it with children; the cane belongs to the households, so do not break it. These are suggestions made here from standing at such sessions, not the rules of the organisers or the police.
5. Sources
| Source | Body | Date | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Sugarcane shadows and lantern light carry the old rhyme; the village rejoices and prays for a good year” | Chaozhou Daily | 5 March 2026 | the evening of 4 March; seven o’clock; the turns of villages one to five; the joint performance; the lantern and male-child homophony; lanterns hung by the number of boys; the municipal tenth batch |
| “You can walk the sugarcane lane in the old city of Chaozhou too” | Xiangqiao district government, Chaozhou | 2026 | the alternative names; over a hundred years; the genealogy’s middle-to-late Ming and Daoguang; the clan head before 1965 and the revival in the 1980s; the reproduction in the old city |
Both can be opened. The “hundred years and more” and the genealogy’s “middle and late Ming” stand side by side.
6. What comes next
In lunar order: before it, the Dachanglong lantern greeting on the fourteenth and fifteenth; after it, the Guanshan pig contest on the seventeenth and eighteenth. Also in Chaozhou are the Qinglong temple fair on the twenty-fourth and Shangrao, swinging on the twenty-sixth.
Elsewhere on the site: Chaozhou lanterns, ying lao ye: its form and the village days, Chaozhou routes.
Back to the Chaoshan procession calendar for all twenty-three sessions.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026