The 22nd China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF), set to kick off in Shenzhen City in south China's Guangdong Province on Thursday, will showcase the latest achievements in the high-quality development of China's cultural industry.
The five-day fair features the main venue plus 51 sub-venues. This setup aims to provide ample and diverse spaces for international exhibitors and buyers to connect.
With traditional culture increasingly woven into everyday modern life, activities such as cultural relics and archaeology, poetry, opera and theater, and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) creative products are gaining strong public appeal. Chinese aesthetics and timeless national styles continue to grow in popularity.
As of now, China has registered 767,000 sites of immovable cultural relics and 108 million (sets) of movable state-owned cultural relics, along with more than 100,000 ICH representative projects at all levels. China's UNESCO world heritage sites total 60, ranking among the world leaders. In addition, China has 45 UNESCO-listed ICH items on its intangible heritage lists and registers, maintaining the world's top total.
Rooted in the profound and extensive Chinese civilization, China has seen a steady emergence of outstanding cultural and artistic works, a further improved public cultural services system, rapid growth of the cultural industry, and increasingly in-depth integration of culture and tourism.
Over the past five years, the business revenue of China's cultural industry increased by 37.7 percent. In 2025, domestic trips exceeded 6.5 billion, up 16.2 percent year on year, and tourism consumption reached 6.3 trillion yuan (around 924 billion U.S. dollars).
This year's ICIF is expected to attract 35,000 overseas professional visitors from 110 countries and regions, with 310 overseas exhibitors from 65 countries and regions participating online and offline.
The parallel Forum on building up China's Cultural Strengthen 2026, which has been successfully held for three consecutive sessions, will continue to build cultural exchange platforms this year.
22nd Int'l Cultural Fair to show China’s high-quality cultural development
China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao outlined the key priorities of the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, which opened on Friday in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.
In an interview with CGTN ahead of the two-day meeting, Wang said free trade, digital cooperation and green economy are high on the agenda of the meeting.
"The key areas include advancing regional economic integration and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, supporting the World Trade Organization (WTO) in strengthening digital cooperation and developing green economy. At present, the international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and chaos, with intensified geopolitical instability. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses serious challenges to the international economic and trade order, disrupting global and Asia-Pacific development. Against this backdrop, all parties have higher expectations for this trade ministers' meeting, hoping that it can build consensus and deliver outcomes," Wang said.
This year marks China's third time hosting the APEC meetings and the 35th anniversary of its membership.
By 2025, China had become the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies. Trade between China and APEC economies reached 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 57.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.
China has signed 24 free trade agreements or economic and trade arrangements with 31 countries and regions, including 15 APEC economies. In recent years, China has also completed upgrades of free trade agreements with APEC economies such as Singapore and Peru.
The minister said that China has always been a firm supporter and an important contributor to APEC.
"We have actively shared our vast market and development opportunities with all parties. China's door to the world will only open wider and wider. Facing the common challenges, China will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, further deepen reform, expand high-standard opening-up, and continue to provide new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region and the world with its new achievements in Chinese modernization," the minister said.
China's Commerce Minister outlines priorities for 32nd APEC trade ministers' meeting
