Major trade expo helps place city on map

NANNING: As vice-mayor of Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Zheng Junjian would elicit frowns or puzzled looks from people whenever he introduced himself years ago.

Some of them even asked Zheng if the southern region was part of its famous economic powerhouse neighbor in the east that is Guangdong province.

He would find such ignorance about Nanning particularly stinging, Zheng said.