Xiamen named China's most attractive MICE destination

Beijing recently hosted the annual China Meetings Industry Convention, during which Xiamen earned designation as China's most attractive MICE destination. MICE stands for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. The spring edition of the Xiamen International MICE Week kicks off on April 14. The second Urban MICE Industry Chain Innovation Expo will be held contemporaneously.

The Forum of Developmental Environment of China's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) kicked off recently in Shenzhen. The forum included the release on a report covering the developmental environment of small and medium enterprises last year.

Of the 36 Chinese mainland cities evaluated, Xiamen placed seventh and Fuzhou took the 18th spot. Shenzhen, Shanghai and Nanjing grounded off the top three.

The appraisal analyzed indicators such as an area's legal, financial and political environment. Xiamen ranked second for its political environment, fourth for its legal environment, seventh for its market environment and eighth for its financial environment.

The China Medicinal Biotech Association recently announced its list of top 10 medicinal biotechnologies produced in China last year. The influenza virus vector covid-19 vaccine for intranasal spray made the list. Scientists at Xiamen University's National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases co-developed the vaccine with researchers from Hong Kong University.

Representatives of the China Railway Construction Corporation announced last week that the new Xiamen North Railway Station now boasts a 1,400 square meter skylight. Officials described it as the world's largest side-hung modular inductive sliding smart skylight.

The newly-built Xiamen North Railway Station features service for the Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway, China's first cross-sea high-speed rail line.

The new Xiamen North Railway Station is just north of the existing Xiamen North Railway Station. The complex has a floor area of 250,000 square meters. When complete, the station will boast 13 platforms and 27 railways. The station features an annual passenger capacity of 50 million travelers.

The Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway places Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou within 30 minutes of each other. The Xiamen-Fuzhou route will boast an operating speed of 350 kilometers per hour, placing the cities one hour apart.

City officials last week released a full list of Xiamen's key projects and annual planned investment for 2023. Plans include 461 key projects with a total investment of 1.19 trillion yuan. Annual planned investment is set to exceed 140.6 billion yuan.

The figures include 161 industrial projects, with a total investment of 402.2 billion yuan. Those numbers include an annual planned investment of 46.6 billion yuan.

Xiamen recently hosted the awards ceremony of the second Xiamen 5G Application Competition. The ceremony coincided with the 5G Application Innovation and Development Forum.

The competition included participants from throughout Fujian. More than 120 organizations have submitted over 240 projects for competition. Entries have covered fields such as the 5G+ industrial internet, smart transportation and smart power.

Xiamen is currently home to more than 5,600 5G base stations. All residences in the local area are served by the region's optical network.

Fujian's department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently released a list of 10 “towns of architecture” in 2023. Huli, Jimei and Siming all made the list.

To determine the list, Fujian assessd municipalities and districts according to criteria such as the number of newly-constructed buildings and the quality of their management over a three-year period.

Fujian's Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles granted its official license to Xiamen's inaugural batch of seven provincial-featured cultural and artistic demonstration bases and four practice bases for new cultural and artistic organizations and groups.

The federation last year joined with Fujian's finance department to launch construction of cultural and artistic demonstration bases throughout the province. The work included an initial 57 demonstration bases.

The seven local bases include: the Center of Artworks from the Maritime Silk Road, the Creative Base of Drama and Chinese Folk Art Forms in Minnan, the Demonstration Base of Cross-strait Culture and Art, the Demonstration Base of Folk Singing and Dancing in Minnan, the Music Base of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Songjiangzhen Folk Culture Plaza in Xiangan and the Xiamen Huihe Stone Culture Park.

City officials recently announced that the third phase of the Haicang Waterworks is slated to come online this year. The waterworks is officially designated as a key provincial and municipal livelihood project.

Roof sealing for the edifice's main structure is slated to conclude in March. The facility will feature the capacity to process 400,000 tons of water per day. City officials said that the expansion will ensure the long-term supply of water.

City official recently announced the finalists for the annual China Green Factory designation. The 2022 edition of the list included 10 Xiamen-based enterprises: ABB Xiamen Low Voltage Equipment, ABB Xiamen Low Voltage Switch, AU Optronics, Haeco Xiamen, Lota (Xiamen) Industries, Tsingtao (Xiamen) Brewery, Dell (China), Xiamen Jiarong Technology, Xiamen Kehua Data and XTC New Energy Materials (Xiamen).

Representatives of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Photographers Association announced recently that Xiamen will be the long-term host of the National Photography Art Exhibition.

Exhibition organizers described the event as China's longest-running, largest and most influential comprehensive photography art exhibition. The National Photography Art Exhibition has been held for 28 years. Xiamen has consecutively hosted the exhibit five times over the past ten years.