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Hangzhou gears up for World Expo, 'Better City, Better Life'

HANGZHOU has always been a favorite of Shanghai residents who call it their "backyard garden" and tourists to China where it's the legendary "heaven on Earth."

So, as World Expo 2010 in Shanghai draws near, Hangzhou is preparing to receive droves of visitors and demonstrate that it actually lives up to the Expo theme, "Better City, Better Life."

The six-month extravaganza opens on May 1, 2010, and is expected to attract 70 million visitors from China and abroad. Eight million of them are expected to visit Hangzhou.

"Shanghai is the locomotive for the Yangtze River Delta and the country at large, while Hangzhou is a key city and transport hub in the region," said Wang Guoqing, Party secretary of Hangzhou. He addressed the Symposium on Hangzhou-Shanghai Economic Cooperation on Wednesday.

"Hangzhou's prosperity cannot be separated from its cooperation with Shanghai," he said.

"After the central government made the integration and development of the Yangtze River Delta a national strategy, Hangzhou's mission is to continue to cooperate with Shanghai and integrate itself into the region," Wang said.

Wang sees the World Expo 2010 as a historic opportunity for Hangzhou to achieve the mission.

The city will co-host the Expo theme forum "Harmonious Cities and Livable Life," put on an urban life demonstration project and prepare the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou High-tech Industrialization Cooperation Exchange.

The city is promoting Expo ticket sales and encouraging enterprises to be active in organizing for the event.

The Hangzhou Pavilion will be part of the Expo's Sustainable Urbanization section in the Urban Best Practices Area that will showcase the best solutions to urban problems around the world.

The 400-square-meter pavilion will be known as "City of Quality of Life" and feature five kinds of water sources - river, stream, creek, lake, and sea - as part of its urban experience.

Hangzhou will be linked with Shanghai by high-speed passenger rail, cutting travel time to 38 minutes from around an hour and 20 minutes today. The top speed will be 350kph and the shortest departure interval is only three minutes.

"The concept of working in Shanghai and living in Hangzhou will come true," Party Secretary Wang told the two-city cooperation symposium. "We see a picture of the West Lake for Shanghai and the Huangpu River for Hangzhou."

The neighboring city is famous for both the West Lake and magnificent landscape as well as comfortable urban living and maintaining Chinese culture.

Several Hangzhou routes are on the official World Expo 2010 experience tour, including landscape in an urban ecosystem, high-quality city life, cultural exploration of traditional Chinese medicine, rural recreation and tea culture.

World Leisure Expo

Hangzhou will host the Second World Leisure Expo from September to November 2011. The first was held in 2006 and organizers aim for an event every five years.

Sponsored by the Hangzhou Municipal Government and World Leisure Organization, it features the theme of "Leisure: Enhancing Quality of Life."

The core concept of the event is "harmonious life, harmonious ecology, harmonious society and a harmonious world." The event aims to expand the brand impact of World Leisure Expo, strengthen cooperation between cities at home and abroad, provide a platform for a leisure industry exhibition and promote the leisure industry in China.

The expo is expected to help Hangzhou become an international tourism and leisure center and be an "Oriental Leisure Metropolis."

Preparation is underway for four main aspects: tourism and trade, culture and sports, exhibitions, conventions and forums.

The First World Leisure Expo was held in Hangzhou from April to October in 2006. It attracted 34.2 million visitors to its 233 conventions, exhibitions and cultural and commercial activities.

Eighty-eight cities and organizations from 26 countries and regions, plus 27 enterprises, set up exhibition halls at World Leisure Garden. The venue is a complex of leisure, resorts, conference sites and exhibition and residential areas.

The city promotes strategy of "revitalizing the city by creating a sound environment."

Cooperation strengthened

Shanghai and Hangzhou signed 41 projects for economic cooperation at the Symposium on Hangzhou-Shanghai Economic Cooperation on Wednesday.

The 28 projects invested by domestic enterprises in Shanghai reached about 11.6 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion). Those invested by foreign enterprises in Shanghai are valued at US$345 million.

Among the domestic-invested projects, 23 exceeded 100 million yuan.

The projects cover a wide range of industries, including infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, modern services, real estate development, auto parts, garment manufacturing and e-business.


 

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