Millions attend activities at intl creative industries expo

A visitor takes a photo at the aerospace booth of the China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo on Oct 27. Photos by Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily

Although the 11th China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo started on a cold and rainy day on Thursday, it attracted hoards of visitors to the main venue in the China International Exhibition Center.

This year, nearly 2 million people have so far attended the expo's diverse activities planned to take place from September to December. Among them were 43 overseas delegations from three international organizations, from 41 countries and regions.

Some 200,000 people visited the expo's main venue, while 60 project-promotion and signing events attracted 13,000 businesspeople from home and abroad.

A local resident from Chaoyang district surnamed Li said he had not missed the expo, if he had time to attend, since its first session in 2006. Visiting exhibitions is a kind of learning, he said.

The 69-year-old said he was pleased to see some historical artifacts at the expo that are currently rarely seen, and that many innovative exhibits were also good.

More than 1,800 international and domestic cultural and creative companies showcased their products, services and projects in fields such as performance, games, films and television, fine arts and cultural tourism at the expo's main venue.

Among them was Yiniao Sci-Art Co, which offered products including dinosaur-themed books, models and T-shirts, based on pictures and words created by Pecking Natural Science-art Organization. The goods attracted many parents.

"We want to communicate with related experts at the expo and hope more of them will know our brand, as well as what we are doing," said Cai Zhuoxin, exhibition centre project director at Yiniao Sci-Art.

This year's expo is a large display platform for traditional and distinctive culture, the event's organizers said.

Museums from different regions attended the event, with a specific area showcasing achievements that museums in Beijing have made in culturally creative products and in developing cultural projects.

The arts and crafts exhibition hall displayed works created by several masters and those provided by more than 50 companies. Some of these were awarded works from a competition for arts and crafts held in Beijing this year, including jade carvings, porcelain and embroidery.

The Beijing tourism exhibition area showcased newly designed gifts and companies that provide tourism products. Local foodstuffs were also displayed in the area to promote the city's traditional snack culture.

Li Wei, chief at the Beijing publicity department, said at the opening ceremony that hosting the expo is an important measure for expediting the development of cultural and creative industries and promoting Beijing's cultural development.

Cultural and creative sectors are among the pillar industries of the city's economy, he said, adding that Beijing helped China's cultural development strategy and promoted the sectors' healthy and orderly development in recent years.

Large legal entities in the cultural and creative sectors in Beijing saw revenue of 826.3 billion yuan ($121.9 billion) from January to August, a year-on-year rise of 8.9 percent.

In the past decade, the expo attracted 522 government and enterprise delegations from more than 90 countries and regions, as well as some 12,700 overseas professionals, according to Li. The expo provided 1,095 activities and a total exhibition area of 1.74 million square meters.

The expo has become an important platform that gathers quality cultural and creative resources, helps companies to improve and promotes cultural communication and cooperation, Li said.

This year's expo offered several promotion and trade events, five forums and conferences and 10 creative activities.

Statistics made available by the organizers show that agreements worth more than 95.83 billion yuan have been so far signed during the 2016 expo, including deals of cultural and creative products and artworks.

The sum of contracts related to scientific and technological projects accounted for more than one third of the total, showing that "culture plus science and technology" at the expo leads cultural innovation, said the event's organizers.

Projects for industrial cooperative development among Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province worth 16.5 billion yuan were signed at the expo, indicating good results from the national strategy for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei collaborative development, the organizers said.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/01/2016 page12)