Cultural riches add value to city

Jining, Shandong province, has rich cultural resources, such as Confucianism and its canal culture. Jining, which was a key port city along the Beijing-Hangzhou canal that was built more than 1,000 years ago, has made good use of these resources to achieve significant success in its prospering cultural industry.

Official data shows the city has more than 18,500 units and 156,000 people engaged in the industry. By the end of 2013, the added value of Jining's cultural industry reached 13.8 billion yuan ($2.163 billion), up 15.8 percent year-on-year and the second-largest industry increase of all cities in Shandong.

On July 14, the government of Jining published suggestions on the implementation of policies and measures to speed up development of the industry. These put forward new targets and preferential policies to boost the growth of the industry.

Jining is also making progress in construction of cultural industry demonstration zones. It already boasts one national-level demonstration zone, two national-level demonstration bases, 11 provincial-level demonstration bases and 82 city-level demonstration cases. The added value of the demonstration zones and bases accounts for more than 60 percent of the industry in the city.

The government allocates special funds each year to support the development of competitive cultural industries and projects. For the past three years, 300 million yuan has been set aside annually to promote the development of the former residential home, temple and tomb of Confucius. With financial support from the government, major cultural projects, including the Ming city protection and renovation project and Confucius international culture exchange center, are progressing as planned.

Ninety-eight projects are under construction, with total investment of 75.5 billion yuan.

The city vigorously implements its strategy of fully utilizing the advantages of being the home of Confucius, successfully establishing a cultural brand of Confucius Sinology study. In late September each year, the International Confucius Culture Festival is held in Qufu, the hometown of Confucius and a famous historic and cultural county-level city in the administrative area of Jining.

The festival has been held for 31 years and is an important platform to introduce Shandong province to the world, helping others learn more about the province - an important location in Chinese history, culturally, politically and economically. The National Tourism Administration recommends it as a selected national-level and international tourism festival.

The Qufu International Confucius Cultural Festival will open on Sept 26 in the Confucius Culture Convention Center, along with a ceremony for the 10th UNESCO Confucius Award for Literacy.

On Sept 28, the Confucius Memorial Ceremony will be held at the Confucius Temple. The 7th World Confucianism Meeting and the awards ceremony of the Confucius Culture Prize will be held during the festival. From mid-Aug to Oct 31, there will be a series of activities about Confucian culture staged in Jining.

The festival provides a chance to introduce Chinese culture to the world and reform of the cultural administrative system could boost economic growth and bring tangible benefits to residents of Jining.

The city government encourages private investment in the booming cultural industry. Last year, more than 90 percent of the industry's newly added value came from private companies.

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/26/2015 page10)