Hot springs and software

Shenyang is using its natural endowments and brainpower to regain its status as an economic powerhouse

Shenyang, the old industrial city and capital of Liaoning province in Northwest China, is getting a makeover thanks to tourists attracted to its hot springs and wildlife, and foreign investment in new industries such as software.

The city has been designated as the venue for hosting the annual World Thermae Forum by the World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy next year.

According to the federation, the hot springs water in Shenyang is rich in sodium bicarbonate and hydrated silica, rare in the world, which has high therapeutic value for chronic rheumatism, rheumatoid diseases and skin diseases.

In Beitang, one of five major hot springs spots, located in the Shenbei district in the north of the city, a deep well has been dug down to a 100 million-year-old layer in the Earth's crust at 2,700 meters. The water, which is 70 C when it comes out of the well, has to be cooled to 30 C to 45 C for use.

Most of the hot springs pools in Beitang are open-air, where one can appreciate beautiful views from the pool. Because of Shenyang's proximity to Japan, the buildings in Beitang are constructed in Japanese style, featuring tranquil wooden huts and tatami mats.

"The most fascinating experience would be in winter when one can enjoy the snow-covered landscape in a hot bath," says Liu Xiaoqing, manager's assistant of the Chengjian Hot Spring Island, a real estate firm managing the Beitang hot springs site. "We are now developing other uses for the water, such as masks, facial cream, irrigation for vegetable patches."

There are many other places to visit around the hot springs. The wetland is home to more than 40 species of birds. In the tiger reservation, there are more than 130 Siberian tigers that are most active in winter. Tourists can see them from a caged bus.

In 2013, Shenbei district received 2.3 million tourists who spent 120 million yuan. The region is expected to receive 6 million tourists in 2018, generating 400 million yuan in receipts, says Chen Guoling, Party chief of the Shenbei tourism development zone.

"With the world hot springs annual convention to be held in Shenyang, the city is going to be introduced to the international market," says Chen, "The tourism package we are developing now will also be presented to foreign tourists. We are open to foreign investment here to make the place more appealing to the international crowd."

Apart from the internationalization of tourism, Shenyang's rich software resources have attracted many foreign companies as well. The Shenyang International Software Park, owned by Only Info-tech, a software service company based in the city, has seen the number of the foreign companies based in the park triple from the level of 2009.

The park, located in the southern suburban area of Shenyang, covers an area of 1 million square meters. The number of foreign companies, many of which are Fortune 500 companies, has increased from fewer than 10 in 2009 to 31, including Schneider Electric SA, Royal Dutch Philips Electronics Ltd and many joint venture enterprises, accounting for about 10 percent of the 367 companies in the park.

In 2013, the output of the software park was worth 25 billion yuan. Seventy percent of the companies are IT-related, and mainly design programs for industrial use and enterprise resource planning services.

"Shenyang, as the most important industrial base when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, has a strong industrial capacity. Many large state-owned enterprises are customers of our companies here," says Li Hui, industrial services director of the park.

Shenyang is also an important software base in China. Every year about 10,000 university graduates major in IT. The average monthly salary is 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, which is very low compared with the level in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

"Schneider sees great potential in equipment demand in Northeast China. We chose Shenyang to be the headquarters in the region more than 10 years ago," says Lyu Ning, regional president of Northeast China, Schneider Electric.

"Shenyang owes its prosperity to the large state-owned industrial enterprises. Yet now it is going to revitalize itself through SMEs as China opens wider to the opportunities and challenges from the global market," Li says.

"SISP itself started as its parent company. Only Info-tech, a private enterprise, was looking for an office itself and therefore discovered the potential of renting an office. Shenyang is definitely going to become more internationalized as China transforms its export-oriented economy to an intelligence-intensive one."

yangziman@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 11/28/2014 page15)