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October 14, 2024

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Hangzhou to host cultural, creative industry expo

By Wu Huixin | 00:00 UTC+8 October 14, 2024 | Print Edition

The 18th Hangzhou Culture and Creative Industry Expo will be held from October 17 to 21. This year, the event will be cohosted by the Hangzhou government, Zhejiang University and the China Academy of Art.

Themed “Creative Hangzhou, Connecting World,” the expo’s main venue will be the Hangzhou Baima Lake International Exhibition Center, with 20 sub-venues in districts, counties and the China International Cartoon and Animation Museum.

The main venue by the Baima Lake comprises four sections: New Crafts, New Waves, New Scenarios and New Young. Visitors can also experience an immersive and interactive digital cultural event with the theme of “Cloud Song Dynasty Vibe” through an online expo.

In the offline venues, around 5,500 domestic brands and 550 foreign brands will present their creations. This year, foreign organizations and firms from 68 countries and regions, including Italy, Britain, Spain, Ireland and Thailand, will be participating in the expo. Over 70 percent of them will be making their debut in China during the expo.

This year, the New Crafts pavilion in the main venue will present handicrafts from China and other countries. In addition, visitors can experience the ancient ruins of Pompeii and the landscape of Japan through augmented virtual reality devices.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic relations this year, organizers will set up a performance area to put on shows from Festival d’Avignon and Chinese traditional operas.

Virtual reality, artificial intelligence technologies, and AI-generated content have boomed in recent years. The expo also includes 20 seminars and conferences, inviting professionals and luminaries to discuss future development and industrial trends, matchmaking investment and promising projects.

The New Scenarios pavilion at the main venue will show the new research results of the digital industry. Domestic leading companies will bring their new products.

Zhejiang University will display its new results in digitalizing artifacts and archeological excavations. The China Academy of Art will create a hyper-immersive setting and realistic audio-visual scenes. Visitors can view classic costume patterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) using virtual reality facilities.

This year, organizers are going to integrate the Hangzhou China Craft Week within the expo, so visitors can enjoy over 30 innovative craft brands and interactive activities.

For years, the expo has been a focal point of the cultural and creative industries, attracting top designers and firms looking for a niche and specific clientele. Meanwhile, with the rise of guochao — a movement that celebrates Chinese designers’ focus on their culture and the changing fashion market — domestic designers turn the traditional craft into avant-garde designs. Therefore, organizers will build an area to mainly showcase the guochao-style designs during the expo.

Since its inception in 2007, the expo has already developed into a cultural extravaganza and one of China’s four greatest cultural and creative trade exhibitions. The others are in Beijing, Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, and Yiwu in Zhejiang Province.

In the past 17 years, the exhibition area has grown from 10,000 to 65,000 square meters, participant numbers have increased from 10 to 68 countries and regions, and visitors have skyrocketed from 30,000 to 280,000. The expo has evolved into a platform for developing the city’s creative industry and promoting economic reform.

Last year, the industry’s added value of Hangzhou’s cultural and creative industry reached 300 billion yuan (US$42.4 billion), accounting for 16 percent of citywide GDP. The Hangzhou government is building the city from a nationwide center into a world’s hub of cultural and creative industry, and turning the industry into a pillar of the economy.

If you go

How to buy tickets:

Visit the official WeChat mini-program of the Hangzhou Culture and Creative Industry Expo

How to get there:

Tickets can be conveniently purchased through the 12306 app or at train stations. Upon arriving at Hangzhou, board Metro Line 6 at Hangzhou East Railway Station and alight at Jianghan Road Station, then transfer to Bus No. 522M and get off at Tangjia Bridge East Station.

Hangzhou


 

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