Cultural tourism of real economy backbone for Nanchang's development

In recent years, Nanchang in Jiangxi province has paved the path toward high-quality development by launching a series of cultural tourism activities.

Li Hongjun, Party secretary of Nanchang, said the city holds a strategic position in China's regional development pattern. With its significant geographical advantage and rich historical and cultural heritage, Nanchang adheres to the spirit of confidence, diligence and unity, and strives to enhance its urban development and core competitiveness.

From April 29 to May 3, the total number of passengers on Nanchang's subway reached 8.33 million, breaking historical records for the period. Nanchang West Railway Station served 1.11 million passengers, an increase of 66.74 percent compared to the May Day holiday in 2019.

Nanchang seeks to cater to the diverse interests of consumers and stimulate consumption.

Wanshou Palace, one of the most lively historical and cultural areas in Nanchang, received approximately 1.04 million visitors during the May Day holiday. Various forms of intangible cultural heritage including sugar sculpture blowing, a traditional Chinese folk art where artists blow and sculpt hot sugar to create three-dimensional figures, palm weaving and Youlan painting, have proved to be best popular, attracting tens of thousands of visitors in a single day.

"These folk activities are lively and interesting, allowing me to relive the wonderful moments of my childhood," said Nanchang resident Li Yuewen, who brought her family to explore the old streets to get a sense of life in the city in the olden days and savor traditional local snacks.

A bustling old alley in Nanchang, Jewelry Street measures a little more than 400 meters in length and houses 81 restaurants. The daily foot traffic surged from 30,000 to 220,000 during the May Day holiday this year.

"At its peak, our shop had more than 1,300 people waiting in line in a single day," said Qiu Xiaoyan, owner of Chenji Handmade Green Bean Cake Shop.

Li said that Nanchang should strengthen the protection of historical relics and cultural artifacts, continue to enrich its cultural connotations and enhance the visibility of the old streets and lanes.

While preserving the authenticity of the characteristic old streets and lanes, tailored approaches should also be taken to actively introduce new scenes and business formats, boost the construction of cultural districts and leisure nighttime markets, and create more urban landmarks for sightseeing.

Based on the iconic Tengwang Pavilion, a famous tower in China with ancient architecture, Nanchang has launched a large-scale live performance titled Seeking Dreams at Tengwang Pavilion in recent years. This performance, combined with holographic digital imaging technology and sound, light and electronic art techniques, presents an audiovisual feast for visitors from China and abroad.

"Opening Tengwang Pavilion at night has increased the number of visitors by one-third," said Hu Xiuyu, deputy general manager of the Tengwang Pavilion management department.

Other famous attractions in Nanchang include the August 1st Nanchang Uprising Memorial Museum, the Jiangxi Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Hall, the Former Headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Nanchang, the Jiangxi Han Dynasty Haihunhou Tomb Site Museum, and the Bada Shanren Memorial Hall.

Li said that Nanchang should delve into its industrial culture and heritage, continuously enrich its business formats, showcase its local characteristics, and create more popular and prosperous urban attractions to foster new growth drivers.

To better develop Jiangxi's time-honored and characteristic traditional cultural brands, the 2023 Jiangxi (Nanchang) First Old Brand Carnival was held in Nanchang on Sept 22, with the theme "Charming Chinese Goods, Quality Life", attracting more than 100 enterprises and specialty product companies.

From various food processing industries such as tea, wine, pastries, preserved duck, noodles, bamboo shoots and pickles to traditional Chinese medicine materials, retail dining, arts and crafts, machinery manufacturing, ceramic arts and incense manufacturing, each product has a long history in Nanchang.

Nanchang held a trade promotion event titled Enjoying Autumn in Joy and Shopping in Hongcheng to stimulate consumer demand and stabilize the bulk commodity consumption market. Nanchang will conduct promotional activities in sectors such as automobiles, household appliances, nighttime markets, dining, supermarkets, department stores, exhibitions and e-commerce.

Dai Qiong, director of the Nanchang bureau of commerce, said: "This trade promotion event will last from September to November and cover more than 100 consumer promotion activities, involving nearly 8,000 companies and merchants. We aim to make everyone feel safe, satisfied, comfortable and happy shopping in Nanchang."

Recently, the city's Xinjian district launched the 2023 Xinjian District Autumn Beautiful Life Season with the theme of "Good Xinjian, Beautiful Life" to promote the eight major cultural brands of Xinjian, drive innovation and the expansion of the cultural tourism consumption market and extend the "internet-famous city" effect of Nanchang to rural areas.

Industrial foundation

Wan Guangming, mayor of Nanchang, said the city aims to become a leading development center for advanced manufacturing. It is supporting the industrial backbone and demonstrating its role as the provincial capital.

Nanchang has placed its economic focus on the real economy and is set to build a new industrial system including four strategic emerging pillar industries — automobiles and new energy vehicles, electronic information, biomedicine and aviation equipment; four characteristic and advantageous traditional industries: green foods, modern textiles, new materials and electromechanical manufacturing; and various productive service industries.

As the fourth-largest knitting and apparel industry base in China, Qingshanhu district currently has more than 2,000 textile enterprises.

Focusing on design, printing and dyeing and manufacturing core links in the industrial chain, the district has vigorously promoted the application of intelligent hoisting systems, flexible ironing systems, 3D warehouses and new-generation information technologies such as the internet of things and 5G.

Yuan Yidan, Party secretary of Qingshanhu, stated that the local textile industry has surpassed a scale of 50 billion yuan ($6.85 billion) and possesses more than 5,000 intelligent computer numerical control devices.

The next step is to accelerate its digital transformation, optimize services, extend the value chain and continue to expand the scale of the industry. Efforts will be made to promote the high-end, branded, intelligent and environmentally friendly development of the modern textile industry.

Not only in the textile industry but also in mobile intelligent terminals, LED and other sectors, Nanchang has strengthened the links in its industry chains. The city has gathered more than 300 related companies, forming a preliminary pattern for the "three arrows", the mobile terminal, digital audio and video, and LED industries.

The operating income of the electronic information industry has increased from 17.77 billion yuan in 2012 to 203.3 billion yuan in 2022, and annual production of mobile intelligent terminals has exceeded 100 million units.

At the end of April, Jiangxi's first provincial laboratory, the Nanchang Laboratory, began construction and operates under the mechanism of "enterprise-oriented integration of science and education". It combines basic research, technological innovation, product creation and high-end applications, fostering high-tech industries.