Cultural industries push region into premier league

Yongqing Fang, the century-old alleyways in Liwan district in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, has been welcoming more visitors since it became a national 4A scenic spot in August.

The city's first intangible cultural heritage block opened, meanwhile, in the alleyways. Ten master studios involving arts like embroidery and enamel have started trading, integrating exhibition, sales, inheritance, communication and training.

The heritage block works as a symbol of vitality in this old city, local media reported.

Guangzhou entered the list of the 12 intangible cultural heritage travel routes selected by the intangible cultural heritage department at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism this year. The city's offering led visitors to the block in Yongqing Fang on the first day.

Zhang Chunlei, head of a cultural heritage research institute at the Guangdong provincial government, said that the 12 routes were selected from 163 intangible cultural heritage tourist routes; only Beijing and Guangzhou are included among China's first-tier cities.

This indicates Guangzhou's culture and travel integration was in the front rank nationally, Zhang said.

Being a hub of Lingnan culture, maritime silk road culture, revolution culture and creative culture in South China, the capital of Guangdong has promoted the renovation of historical blocks and an integration of culture and tourism in the past two years.

It started a demonstration project on the theme of exhibition, performance and sales related to intangible cultural heritage in August.

Canton Tower is the project's center and the surrounding area along the Pearl River is its basic space.

Tourists are often impressed by the fine costumes of Cantonese opera under Canton Tower. On its second floor, they can enjoy Cantonese opera for free every weekend, which integrates Guangzhou's traditional culture and modern development.

In the meanwhile, 10 festivals and fairs have become high-level cultural tourism development platforms of the city.

They include the Guangzhou Cultural Industry Fair and the Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, local media reported. They said Guangzhou has always been in the vanguard of cultural innovation. Cultural creativity sectors, such as electronic sports and live broadcasting, have given vitality to traditional culture in the city, which is home to several large companies in those fields.

Guangzhou houses 2,826 large cultural enterprises and more than 150 cultural creativity industry parks and centers. Eight internet-based cultural companies from the city were added to the list of China's top 100 internet companies for 2019. The list was released by the Internet Society of China and the internet security industry development center at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Li Mingchong, an executive director at a cultural industry research center of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said: "Guangzhou boasts good internet ecology, an inclusive culture ambience, professionals and scientific research innovation."

It has used opportunities of mobile internet and digitalization and as a result its emerging cultural industries thrived, Li said.

Digital content, animation, games, live broadcasts, internet culture and digital publishing are becoming a new impetus to Guangzhou's cultural development and promoting the city's international influence.

A local report showed added value of Guangzhou's cultural sectors amounted to 160 billion yuan ($24.4 billion) last year, accounting for 6.77 percent of the city's GDP.

Emerging industries, such as online games, media websites and virtual reality, are expected to increase rapidly this year.

According to the Guangzhou government's plans, cultural industries will become one of the city's pillar sectors of strategic importance by the end of 2035.