Where pure rivers flow and the sacrificial ducks are plastic

Apart from its Taoist culture, what makes Huichang unique is its folk culture. About 95 percent of its people are members of the Hakka ethnic group, one of the highest concentrations in the country. Hakka is the Cantonese pronunciation of the Mandarin word kejia.

Since 2015 a big folk culture festival has been held in Huichang to celebrate its folk traditions and this naturally attracts tourists.

On Aug 26 an opening event was held at the Laigong Temple, and thousands of Huichang residents attended. At the temple they worship the local god, Laigong, and pray for health and wealth. The worship of Laigong is a ritual that has been passed down over about 500 years.

After the folk performance and worship rituals there was parade that took in the downtown area of the county.

Cai Weiping, an official of Huichang's publicity department, said one of the big events during the worship ceremony was ducks being sacrificed outside the temple. However, in 2015 local officials decided it was time to end the custom and ordered the manufacture of paper and plastic ducks to replace real ones.

The change was partially triggered by the US-born and Taiwan-based director and playwright Stan Lai, who for the past two years has been staging his plays in Huichang that have had phenomenal success in the county, his father's hometown.

"To my amazement, they went ahead and made these plastic ducks and gave them to anyone who would vow not to kill their ducks, and so I saved the lives of about 35,000 ducks last year," Lai said.

Local officials have also made an effort to reduce the use of fireworks as a way of minimizing air pollution.