In the activity, the sculpture of the Buddha is placed on a splendid chariot. With drums, trumpets and other musical accompaniments, the chariot follows a fixed route and accepts the admiration, incense and flowers from the crowd. Following the chariot team are usually performers of music, dance and acrobatics. Fa Xian, an eminent monk of the Eastern jin Dynasty, recorded in his Travels Notes On TianZhu (India) that he witnessed two "Xingxiang" fairs on his journey to the West. One was in Yutian (present Hetian of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region); another was in the Middle Tianzhu (today's India). Fa Xian wrote, "On this day, all monks and laymen of the country gather to perform music and dance, present incense and flowers ... Buddhas then go into the city one after another and spend a night there. All lamps are lit through the night, with music and dance, and all other offerings to the Buddhas. Every country is just like this". This shows that most countries believing in Buddhism had this custom. By the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, this activity was already very popular in northern China.
The Records of Qielan at Luoyang state that when the various temples held "XingXiang" fairs at Luoyang of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were all sorts of acrobatics and performances, with music and dance all along the fixed route. At the front of the chariots team were auspicious lions to clear the road, and at the end were acrobatics and dancers who performed swallowing knives, spitting fire, climbing the flag polls, walking on tight ropes. "Strange skills and bizarre clothes are seen everywhere in the capital". This activity conglomerated all the local music and dancing artists who competed with each other every year. The role of such activities on the development of music and dance is obvious. Many Chinese folk dances were preserved with such religious activities.
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