Mr. Mei Song
Chief Expert of the Beijing Academy of Cultural Industry Development
Beijing is a famous historical and cultural city with rich historical and cultural resources. Dating back more than 3,000 years as a city and over 800 years as a capital, it boasts seven world cultural heritage sites, namely the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, the Palace Museum, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty and the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian. With its long history and profound cultural significance, Beijing ranks among the world's leading capitals with pride. Beijing strives to build itself into a global cultural and creative center, making plans and drawing a new blueprint for the development of the creative industry. Through the innovative development of the cultural and creative industry, it builds a multi-level industrial development pattern, optimizes the modern public cultural service system, and accumulates rich experience in promoting green and low-carbon transformation and sustainable development.
Inheriting Historical Legacies and Safeguarding the Millennium-Old City
As described by the famous architect Liang Sicheng: "The unique sublime and magnificent spatial order of Beijing is generated by this central axis. It extends to both the north and the south, imposing a sense of magnificence on the whole city." The Central Axis of Beijing is 7.8 kilometers long, starting in the south of the city from the Yongding Gate, running across renowned architecture like the Yongding Gate, the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Agriculture, the Zhengyang Gate, the National Museum of China, the Great Hall of the People, the Tian'anmen Square, the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the Altar of the Land and Grain, the Palace Museum, the Jingshan Hill, the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower, and ending with the Drum Tower and Bell Tower in the north. The buildings include not only ancient pavilions with carved beams and painted rafters, but also unique modern architecture featuring innovation. The application of the Central Axis for World Heritage status provides an important path to promot the protection of Beijing's old city area. Beijing has made great efforts to strengthen the protection of its old city area through the application of the Central Axis as a World Heritage site, while inheriting the historical legacies of the ancient capital. In recent years, Beijing has done its utmost to preserve hutongs and other cultural heritage. On the basis of maintaining the original urban texture and pattern, Beijing has been continuously developing its spatial ecosystem and historical heritage, focusing on retaining the cultural features of its old city area to accelerate the green and high-quality development of the city.
Green Development and Better Industrial Structure
Beijing continues to optimize and adjust its industrial structure, to empower high-quality sustainable development. By vigorously enhancing the transfer of traditional manufacturing, and the development of high-tech industries, it comprehensively boosts transformation and upgrade of the manufacturing industry, and pursues green and low-carbon development. At present, Beijing's industrial structure has nearly reached the level of developed countries, with the tertiary industry accounting for over 80% of the regional GDP, and energy consumption & carbon dioxide emission per CNY 10,000 (USD 1,498) worth of GDP reaching world-leading levels. Amidst the global spread of COVID-19, the successful hosting of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games highlighted greenness and high tech. The Winter Olympics strictly implemented low-carbon management, made a series of fruitful explorations in promoting sustainable energy application and strengthening ecological protection in the competition zones, and contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to all mankind.
Integration of Culture with Science and Technology, Fusion of Digital Technology and Creative Industries
Beijing's cultural industry features robust development, creating a core driving force for sustainable development. Beijing has fully boosted the construction of a cultural hub, focusing on the general objectives of building "one axis and three belts", namely, the north-south Central Axis, the Great Wall Cultural Belt, the Grand Canal Cultural Belt and the Xishan Yongding River Cultural Belt. It also spurs the construction of a demonstration area for public cultural service systems and a leading area for cultural and creative industries, promoting the development of the cultural industry and the prosperity of the cultural market. Statistics show that Beijing now has 150,000 cultural enterprises which employ more than one million people. Moreover, the added value of the cultural industry accounts for more than 10% of the city's total. In recent years, focusing on the development trend of cultural and sci-tech integration, Beijing has accelerated the fusion of digital technology and creative industries, constantly improved the industrial chains, energized new business forms of cultural and sci-tech integration, and realized the industry development goals of optimizing public cultural services, creating new scenarios of cultural consumption, and improving people's cultural experience. Relying on intellectual resources and focusing on creativity and creation, the cultural and creative industry is characterized by low-carbon, green and sustainable development, and has become an important engine for Beijing to build a green economy and promote sustainable development.
The Transformation of Industrial Heritage Promotes Urban Revitalization
Beijing promotes the reuse of old factories to boost urban renewal featuring a sustainable development model. In recent years, the protection and utilization of old factory buildings have become the focus of urban renewal in Beijing. From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 1990s, Beijing has been an vital industrial city in north China with a solid foundation for the development of heavy industry. After the reform and opening-up, the city vigorously enhanced the optimization and upgrade of industrial structure. Heavy chemical enterprises moved out of Beijing one after another, leaving behind a large number of old factories. The government has launched a series of measures to support the development of the cultural industry, encouraging the use of old factories to give priority to the development of the cultural industry, and vigorously introducing innovative projects. While protecting industrial heritage and boosting the development of the cultural industry, the government has made breakthroughs in exploring energy conservation, emission reduction and sustainable development. By now, Beijing has renovated and utilized more than 20 million square meters of old factory buildings, and remarkably expanded the public cultural space of citizens on the basis of revitalizing the existing resources to help enterprises develop. A group of industrial heritage sites and modern cultural industries witness rebirth in integration, including the century-old Shougang which has taken on an all-new look. The gradually forgotten "Steel City" has impressed the world with Big Air Shougang, becoming a landmark and model of urban revitalization.
Introduce Policies for the Industrial Recovery
Beijing has introduced practical policies to help cultural enterprises develop healthily amidst the pandemic and safeguard sustainable development. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the cultural industry has suffered a heavy blow, and the production, work and life of cultural enterprises and practitioners in the cultural industry have been affected to varying degrees. Since 2020, Beijing has taken measures aimed at the difficulties and pain points of cultural enterprises during the pandemic, to mitigate the periodical impact of COVID-19 on the cultural industry. Financial policy support, such as rent reduction and exemption, loan repayment extension and financing subsidy, is intended to effectively reduce the operating pressure of cultural enterprises and help them restore vigor and vitality. However, severe challenges are still facing us in the fight against the pandemic, and cultural and creative industries have not fully recovered. In this case, Beijing will continuously increase policy adjustment and support in accordance with the actual needs of cultural industry development, so as to provide new momentum for the healthy development of the cultural industry, and boost the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.
