Chengdu's Dual-Festival Lineup: VR Premieres, a World Coffee Festival and Worry-Free Shopping

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): Mid-Autumn meets National Day, and Chengdu's streets will be livelier than usual. Visiting Tiexiang Temple Water Street and Cidi CyPARK on September 23, reporters found that from …

Mid-Autumn meets National Day, and Chengdu’s streets will be livelier than usual.

Visiting Tiexiang Temple Water Street and Cidi CyPARK on September 23, reporters found that from the first VR immersive interactive drama based on “Honor of Kings” to a world coffee festival spanning four continents, Chengdu is serving residents and visitors “good things to browse, good experiences to play with, and a reassuring environment to spend in.”

“First” play at Boxin Universe:

Young people queue to enter a dream

Boxin Universe (Chengdu) Immersive Exploration Center in Tiexiang Temple Water Street, Chengdu High-Tech Zone, is the first exploration venue in southwest China. “Voyage to the Star Sea: Dream Rescue,” which opened on September 21, has become the “traffic code” ahead of the dual festival.

As the first VR immersive interactive drama based on “Honor of Kings,” it is jointly licensed by Honor of Kings and the Shanghai Astronomy Museum and produced by Weixing Space, bringing characters such as Master Luban, Luban No. 7, Zhuang Zhou and Cai Wenji into a freely walkable space Jixia Academy and a two-layer dream world.

▲ Boxin Universe

Li Yixuan, head of Boxin Universe in Chengdu, explained that the venue has been in the city for over two years; from “The Disappearing Pharaoh,” “Eternal Notre-Dame” and “The Epoch of Life” to this domestic large-space VR work, seven IPs are now available in the same venue, making it a model of multi-IP simultaneous operation.

“During last year’s National Day holiday we had basically more than 500 visitors a day. This year the dual festival overlaps with seven IPs and a new project making its national debut, so we expect young audiences and parent-child families to flock in,” Li Yixuan said. “Voyage to the Star Sea: Dream Rescue” is Boxin Universe’s first operation of a domestic large-space virtual reality work, and consumer demand for large-space VR is becoming more diverse: alongside immersive exploration centred on history, civilization, art and science, new content forms centred on game IPs, interactive entertainment and youth socializing have appeared.

60 brands

Putting “the world” into a cup

Mid-Autumn at Cidi CyPARK is about more than the smell of mooncakes.

From September 25 to 27, the Cidi World Coffee Festival will open in full: baristas and brands from four continents — the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania — will be on site, with the scale expanding from 30 stalls last year to 60 brands and a number of heavyweight café owners. Nas Jaafar, the 2026 World Brewers Cup champion from Malaysia; Omakafé, home of 2024 WBC World Barista Champion Mikael Jasin and 2025 World Coffee in Good Spirits champion Odi; and Li Jinkun, 2023 WBrC China champion from the Captain George brand, will all appear.

▲ Cidi CyPARK

Media

Person in charge Zixuan told reporters that the biggest difference from previous years is “more global, more fun, more professional”: last year leaned toward Asian styles, while this year global champions and competition judges have been invited on site. Interactive play is more varied too — beyond buying drinks at stalls, customers can collect stickers for a lucky draw, try latte art themselves, and take part in climbing and pull-up challenges. New collaborative products from Wild Dog Store and the Dirty Monkey artist, and an entirely new brand line from “Toujia Yezhou,” a three-time Michelin Guide selection in two years, will also be unveiled before National Day.

“What we want is not to sell coffee, but a one-stop world flavor trip — so residents and visitors can drink exotic flavors in Chengdu without going abroad,” Zixuan said.

Focused on “browsing with peace of mind”

Consumption vouchers, departure tax refunds and dispute resolution all online

Behind the attractive debut exhibitions and the good coffee lies the underlying support of “worry-free shopping.”

Reporters learned from the Mid-Autumn and National Day consumption measures previously released by the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Commerce that the city will hold more than 400 consumption events during the dual festival and issue over 100 million yuan in consumption vouchers. “Cloud Shopping Rongcheng” e-commerce vouchers cover mobile phones, digital products and fitness equipment; car replacement subsidies reach up to 10,000 yuan; the disbursement cycle for trade-in funds has been halved compared with 2025; and anniversary discounts at key supermarkets stack with “Double 11” warm-up offers, forming a double benefit of “government subsidy plus enterprise concession.”

More crucial is “browsing with peace of mind”: luggage storage, child care, smart parking, a thousand “surprise cars” among ride-hailing vehicles, and seven city experience routes all go live together. Inbound visitors need not worry either — the city now has 940 departure tax refund shops and 340 “buy and refund immediately” shops, with foreign-language signage and inbound payment continuously improving. Consumer rights service stations have been set up in key commercial districts such as Chunxi Road, Jiaozi Park and Rongbei, promoting “credit plus trusted payment codes” that let shoppers scan a merchant’s credit profile and initiate dispute resolution with one tap, keeping “small matters inside the commercial district.”

▲ Cidi CyPARK

From the starry lights at Tiexiang Temple Water Street to the coffee aroma at CyPARK and the scannable “trusted payment code” in the shopping districts, Chengdu’s logic for this dual festival is plain enough: debut stores and debut exhibitions deliver “newness,” the coffee market delivers “warmth,” and regulation and services deliver “stability.” All residents and visitors need to do is walk in, and between “comfortable” and “reassured” they can turn Mid-Autumn and National Day into a city-wide consumption party.

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