Life> Travel

West Lake Festival 2009 goes out with a bang

By Lu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-25 10:37

The Hangzhou West Lake International Expo - also known as the West Lake Expo - has recently completed its eleventh successful event. This year it took as its theme: "Confident Hangzhou, the High Quality West Lake Expo" and also launched a grand firework festival.

Wang Guoping, Party secretary of the Hangzhou municipal Party committee, said: "This year the event was the largest in its history and had the most stimulating content. It also attracted the highest level of visitors."

In total, the event consisted of 121 conferences, exhibitions and related activities. During its 22 day run, beginning Oct 18, the expo received a total of 12.9 million overseas and domestic visitors. Its website also had 5.74 million hits.

It achieved a total trade turnover of 13.8 billion yuan and saw successful negotiations resulting in secured foreign investment of $1.062 billion, as well as contractual domestic investment of 13.2 billion yuan.

It made a hugely positive contribution to maintaining the city's growth, adjusting its economic structure and promoting growth in the region, adding to the Hangzhou's reputation as "the capital of oriental leisure and the city with a high quality of life" as well as its image of being "China's happiest city".

Since its restoration as an annual event in 2000, the West Lake Expo, one of Hangzhou's most high profile events, has considerably enhanced the reputation of the city and become extremely influential both at home and abroad.

As a mark of its growing importance, the event has now been accredited as China's "Most Influential Brand Show" and is now widely seen as one of the country's top 10 international festivals, among other honors.

The grand firework display during the West Lake Expo

Boosted by the West Lake Expo, the Hangzhou exhibition industry has made considerable progress in other areas. It is now host to the World Leisure Expo and has successfully staged the World Chinese Entrepreneur Convention, the World Buddhist Forum, the China Investment Environment Forum, the World Craft Conference, the World Leisure Conference and the Clown Carnival. It has also instigated a tea expo, a silk expo, a food festival and a number of branded exhibition activities.

Since 2008, some 50 percent of its projects have had an international profile. Over the last nine years, it has secured a contractual domestic investment of 92.27 billion yuan and contractual foreign investment of $7 billion.

The West Lake Expo has a long history. The first West Lake Expo took place in 1929, and lasted four months, creating a precedent for the contemporary Chinese exhibition industry and enjoying an attendance in excess of 20 million. At the time it was as renowned as a number of other global events, including the Chicago Fair, the Paris Expo and the Expo in Philadelphia.

Since its resumption in 2000, nine sessions of the West Lake Expo have seen the successful staging of 729 exhibitions, conferences, cultural festivals and a series of related activities. These events have received a total of 89.694 million visitors and achieved a trade turnover of 82.62 billion yuan.

In total, the events have secured a foreign investment of $10.01 billion and an investment from other provinces and cities in China of some 92.22 billion yuan.

According to the local statistics bureau, each West Lake Expo can drive urban GDP growth by about 0.5 percentage point above the average, making the event one of the most important driving forces for economic development in Hangzhou.

Wang believes the West Lake Expo is a real boon for all of the city's residents. Aside from its economic benefits, it also provides a number of leisure spectacles, most notably the Hangzhou West Lake International Fireworks Festival.

This year's firework festival, on Oct 24, saw 130 citizens set off 193,000 fireworks across eight separate firework display zones for local citizens.