Xiamen's global city ranking rises sharply

The Banlam Grand Theater in Xiamen hosted the opening ceremony of the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival last week. This year's festival includes the Golden Rooster Award nomination ceremony, an awards ceremony, film screenings, forums, a project market and outreach programs for early- and mid-career filmmakers.

A project signing ceremony also kicked off this year's Golden Rooster Film Market. Participants announced a total of 175 cultural and film industry projects. Six projects each topped one billion yuan in value, with 97 projects valued above 100 million yuan. The Xiamen Film and Cultural Industry Base and City Film and Culture Theme Project was featured at the ceremony.

The film base is home to a new international film and television copyright service platform. Based in Xiamen, the platform's stated mission is to globalize Chinese film and television intellectual properties, to attract international film and TV IP copyrights, to promote international cultural exchange and to support the development of the film industry.

Representative from Iport Group announced that it is upping the frequency of its Xiamen-Memphis international cargo route to five days per week. The route, which debuted in June as a weekly flight, is serviced by Boeing B777 freighters. The route departs from Xiamen and includes stops in Incheon, Republic of Korea, and Anchorage, Alaska before arriving in Memphis, Tennessee.

The final roadshow of the Golden Rooster Film Project Maker conference wrapped up in Xiamen last week. The roadshow included 10 finalists, a group that included the film The Last Bodehi. The picture is the first Xiamen-themed project to become a finalist since the Golden Rooster Awards moved to Xiamen.

Xiamen University last week hosted an inauguration ceremony for the University Alliance for Theater and Film Education. The event coincided with this year's China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival. Ancillary discussions covered the alliance's responsibilities, operational model and support mechanisms.

Eight institutions are founders of the alliance: the Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, the China Academy of Art, Communication University of China, Communication University of Zhejiang, Macau University of Science and Technology, the Shanghai Theater Academy and Xiamen University.

Sparkle Live CEO Zhang Chongshuo announced recently that Xiamen will be the host city of next year's Bubble Island Music and Arts Festival. The Xiamen edition of the travel festival  will include a number of cross-Strait cultural exchanges.

The festival has attracted more than 200 domestic and international musicians and musical groups, more than 100 young artists and nearly 600,000 attendees.

The annual Invitational Exhibition of Works of Chinese Filmmakers and Artists opened recently at the exhibition hall of the Xiamen Federation of Literary Art Circles. The event is an ancillary event held in conjunction with the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival. The event also included an exchange session with calligraphers and artists as well as community activities and sketching trips.

Organizers said that the goal of the exhibition is to promote exchanges and learning among Chinese filmmakers and artists and to foster development in literature and art. The exhibition runs through the end of the month. It showcases more than 100 artworks created by more than 80 filmmakers and artists.

The annual  Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Kite Festival hit the skies last week  at Guanyinshan Beach in Xiamen and at Xishan Lake Park in Jinmen. Kite-flying teams from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan presented aerial performances during the festival. Other events included various games for kite enthusiasts.

Container sea-rail intermodal transport volume via Xiamen Port jumped 27 percent year-on-year through October. The port processed completed 106,800 TEU of cargo in the timeframe. Xiamen Port is connected to 187 liner routes reaching 152 ports in more than 40 countries and across five continents.

Ren Xiaomei, Party member and deputy director of the Xiamen Port Authority summarized the development of container sea-rail intermodal transport of Xiamen Port in an update on the city of Xiamen's official website. Mr. Ren noted that container sea-rail intermodal transport via Xiamen Port topped 100,000 TEU last year, a record high at the time.

The Wuyuan Bay Bridge Pier Sports Park recently opened to the public. The new park in Huli is beneath Wuyuan bridge and adjacent to the area's Blue Ribbon circular pathway. The 4,400-square-meter project includes a five-on-five soccer field, a paddle tennis court, two basketball courts and a skate park.

Inspur Big Data announced last week that Xiamen's e-commerce sector led Fujian in terms of online retail sales during this year's Double Eleven shopping festival. The firm tracked sales between October 14 and November 11. Xiamen's online retail sales during the period reached a record-high 35.6 billion yuan, up year-on-year by 6.6 percent.

Of Xiamen's total, physical goods accounted for 32.3 billion yuan, up 3.7 percent year-on-year. Xiamen's online retail sales ranked first in Fujian, representing 37 percent of the provincial total.