Remarks by Liu Xinfeng, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee at the “Decode a Happy China via Cloud Tours - Foreign Media Online Interview Xi'an Promotion Day” activity

Liu Xinfeng, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee, promotes the city in his speech Photo: Zhao Hao

Dear Guests, Our friends from the media,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon, everyone! It’s my honor today (Sept 10) to present you with an open, diligent, vigorous and innovative new Xi’an via the Internet.

Xi'an, known in ancient times as Chang'an, is the starting point of the Silk Road, an ancient trade route that spanned thousands of miles and has existed for thousands of years, cultivating the Silk Road Spirit with peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit at the core. Nearly every person who has deep feelings for the Chinese civilization wants a tour around the great city of Chang’an.

Tourists ride bikes on Xi’an’s city wall Photo: The Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee

Xi’an is an open city with a long history and rich cultural deposits. It was built over 3,100 years ago and became a capital city over 1,100 years ago. Thirteen dynasties built their capitals here, making it one of the four great ancient capitals of the world, together with Athens, Cairo and Rome. With 3,246 historical places of interest such as the Mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang and Terracotta Warriors, the city is hailed as a natural museum of Chinese history. In the Tang Dynasty, Chang’an became the world’s first city with a population over 1 million and expanded its business throughout the country and Eurasia. In its prime, foreign merchants and students surpassed 100,000 in the city. After the founding of the P.R. China, over 200 foreign heads of state and leaders have visited Xi’an. Today, Xi’an has become a key hub of the Belt and Road and a city on the frontline of China’s westward opening. It has established friendly-city ties with 38 cities of 32 countries. So far, over 200 of the world’s top 500 enterprises have invested in the city or set up branches here.

Terracotta Warriors Photo: The Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee

Xi’an is a hub city that links east to west and connects south with north. It’s also an international comprehensive traffic hub and a key section of the Eurasian Land Bridge. The Xi’an Xianyang International Airport is the 7th largest hub airport in China, with over 85 percent of regions nationwide within a two hour flight from the city. It’s also one of the six largest passenger hubs and eight largest freight hubs in China. Thanks to a high-speed railway network in the shape of Chinese character “米” as well as a road network, Xi’an is just 3 hours from central and western China and 6 hours from most parts of the country. During the pandemic, the China Railway Express (Chang'an) rail freight service has become a golden route for China’s foreign trade. As of August 20, 2,305 train trips have been made this year, double that of 2019.

A night view of a walking street at the Tang Paradise business zone Photo: The Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee

Xi’an is a vigorous city with thriving industries and enormous potential. With a sound industrial foundation, a strong industrial system and outstanding advantages in aerospace, the city is building an innovation chain based on its industrial chain while gearing the industrial chain to the needs of the innovation chain. Efforts are also being made to accelerate the establishment of a“6+5+6+1” modern industrial system, a move aimed at strengthening the electronic information manufacturing, automobile, aerospace, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy and biomedicine industries, expanding the AI, robot, 5G technology, 3D printing, big data and cloud computing industries and improving the modern finance, modern logistics, R&D design, inspection, examination and certification, software and information service, as well as convention and exhibition sectors while deepening the integration of the culture and tourism industries so as to create “four beams and eight columns” to support high quality development.

Xi’an is an innovative city with a talent pool and surging innovation. It enjoys outstanding human resource advantages in the sci-tech and education sectors. There are 84 universities with 1.3 million students, 66 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering and over 400 research institutes at the state or province level. It also has 23 state-level sci-tech enterprise incubators, 181 makerspaces and 3,673 state-level high-tech enterprises. In 2019, patent applications in the city totaled 72,300 while the volume of contracted technology transactions hit 136.4 billion yuan.

A night view of Tang Paradise Photo: The Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee

Like many other cities in China and abroad, Xi’an was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic early this year. In our response, we have put people's life and health first and taken a series of resolute measures and they have paid off: there have been no new locally-transmitted cases since Feb 20. After the outbreak was contained, we have taken active steps to turn challenges into opportunities and seek opportunities from the crisis, striving for a quicker economic recovery. In the first half of the year, Xi’an achieved 2.8% year-on-year GDP growth and ranked 1st among 15 sub-provincial cities in terms of GDP, the added value of above-scale industrial enterprises and the growth rate of investments in fixed assets. Now, Xi’an is striving hard and tirelessly to seize every day and ride on the wave amid its accelerated construction of a national central city and an international metropolis with a rich historical and cultural background.

Xi'an Bell Tower [Photo: The Publicity Department of the CPC Xi’an Municipal Committee]

Before I conclude this speech, I want to give you an “Easter egg.” The State Council has given an approval for China’s 14th National Games to open on Sept 15 next year in Xi’an! Today, you toured across a brilliant Xi’an in one day through cloud interviews. Tomorrow, I hope we will meet again in the city during the 14th National Games and together experience the openness, inclusiveness, innovativeness and brilliance of both the old Chang’an and the new Xi’an!

Lasting yearnings fill in Chang’an!

This ancient capital city always welcomes you!

Welcome to Xi’an！