Local exhibition industry ranks in China's top 10

Xiamen's exhibition industry is ranked tenth, up two places from last year, on a recent ranking of China's most competitive exhibition cities. The China Convention, Exhibition and Event Society (CCEES) paired with Chengdu University to release the rankings as part of their annual report on China's convention and exhibition industry.

Xiamen's exhibition activities included major events such as the Xiamen Auto Show, the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival and China Film Golden Rooster Awards, the China International Pharmaceutical Machinery Exposition, the China National Pharmaceutical Machinery Exposition and the China Xiamen International Optics Fair, and the Xiamen International Coffee Fair.

A recent report by GreatWall Strategy Consultants (GEI) listed nine Xiamen companies as potential unicorn firms, meaning they have a realistic chance of becoming a private company with a valuation topping a billion dollars. The local firms include A1 Snack Lab, Epicmems, Xiamen Silan Microchip Manufacturing, ASL, UMU, Deep Insights, Xiamen Silan Advanced Compound Semiconductor, GeoMicro and Iris. The Xiamen companies represent sectors including integrated circuits, digital enterprise operations and new consumer industries.

The China-BRICS Science and Innovation Incubation Park for the New Era last week hosted its inaugural project showcase in Xiamen. The event featured 15 projects from Brics group countries such as Brazil, Russia and South Africa. The projects covered fields including civil aerospace, biopharmaceuticals and new materials.

The annual TAC-LSC Summit opened on November 9 at Marco Polo Xiamen. The event catered to translation and other language-associated companies. The Translators Association of China and the Xiamen Translators' Association hosted the event. Xiamen Master Translation Services organized the summit.

This year's summit featured 21 exhibition stands and dozens of guest speakers from 10 countries. It also featured multiple sub-forums, roundtable discussions and training workshops geared to the language services industry.

Xiamen Daily and the local police recently concluded a competition that opened in March to celebrate the city's most appealing store signs. The competition concluded with 100 finalists and an official list of the ten most appealing store signs boutique streets.

Local customs officials last week announced that exporters shipped 84.2 billion yuan in lithium batteries via Fujian in the year through September. Xiamen accounted for 30 billion yuan of the provincial total.

Key markets included the United States, Europe and Japan. Fujian's lithium battery exports to these regions totaled 72.9 billion yuan. Exports to Germany reached 30.5 billion yuan, up year-on-year by 36.2 percent, while exports to the United States rose to 27.7 billion yuan, up 28.2 percent.

City officials announced last week that Xiamen added 15 charity dining stores this year, growing the area's total to 78 outlets. The city's Civilization Office held a symposium addressing the growth of its charitable initiative. The program began last year with the stated goal of creating a meaningful and influential public welfare brand.

The Xiamen Art Museum last week hosted the opening of a new exhibition entitled Ode to the Great Wall. The 600-square-meter lacquer mural is the world's largest of its kind. Running through December 4, the exhibition is open to the general public free of charge. The mural can be found in the preface hall of the Chinese Communist Party History Exhibition Hall.

The Italian DansePartout ballet troupe will debut its version of the classic romantic ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Xiamen Poly Grand Theater on November 16.

Established in 2006, DansePartoutis dedicated to blending traditional ballet with innovative choreography and production. The company's productions emphasize the use ingenious props and background settings to create romantic and elegant artistry.

The annual Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Cultural Industries Fair recently wrapped up in Xiamen. Organizers said that the fair was devoted to cultural exchange and industrial cooperation between Chinese mainland and Taiwan entities. The fair hosted more than 200 activities such as exchanges, seminars, project matchmaking, contract signings and cultural performances.

This year's event drew 150,000 visitors and generated on-site transactions and orders exceeding 3.3 billion yuan. Fujian municipal delegations announced agreements for 46 cultural and tourism projects, amounting to 8.3 billion yuan in signed investments.

The annual Golden Rooster Film Festival kicked off on Monday in Xiamen. The festival runs through November 24 and included both Chinese and international categories. The event includes screening for a total of 37 internationalfilms.

All of the 10 films in competition in the international section as well as the 21 non-competitive international films fare well at other film festivals earlier this year in places such as Cannes, Toronto and Venice.

The Chinese-language portion of the festival includes 23 popular new and classic films. The entries include nine from Hong Kong, one from Macao, nine from Taiwan and four apiece from Malaysia and Singapore.

Xiamen-based firms reported robust sales at the recently-concluded Canton Fair in Guangzhou. The Xiamen Chamber of Commerce for Importers and Exporters noted that local companies announced a cumulative turnover exceeding $276 million, up seven percent year-on-year.

This year's fair attracted 253,000 overseas buyers from more than 200 countries, Attendance jumped 2.8 percent from the previous event, surpassing the 250,000-attendee benchmark for the first time. Almost 150 industrial and commercial organizations attended as part of various delegations, up by 18.5 percent. The number of multinational purchasing companies topped the 300 milestone.