In a bid to raise their city's profile and promote tourism, 50 couples from Hebei Province's Qinhuangdao City have flown to Seoul in South Korea to conduct a bumper collective wedding ceremony. The purpose behind this novel idea is to stimulate the South Korean tourist market and attract more investments towards Qinhuangdao. 

 

The activity will last for nine days from September 17 to 25, with Qinhuangdao Mayor Jian Ruiting leading the team. The chief executives of the city's subordinate bureaus, international travel agencies, AAAA-level scenic spots and four-star hotels will accompany the mayor to South Korea.

The team will visit the China National Tourist Office in Seoul on September 19 and several famous travel agencies to establish deep contact with South Korean tourism insiders, thus promoting communication and cooperation. On September 20, the wedding ceremony will be held in Seoul.

To prepare for the activity, 50 new couples, selected from Qinhuangdao City, will perform the ceremony in traditional Chinese wedding costumes. This novel occasion will give the city a way to publicize itself to foreign people and media. The selected couples will be elite representatives of Qinhuangdao city and its denizens, carrying the greetings to South Korean people. Mayor Jian Ruiting will preside over the ceremony and present souvenirs to them. Meantime, they will receive the South Korean officials and the public's blessings, a significant event for their new lives.

On the wedding site, Qinhuangdao's units and enterprises within the tourism industry will introduce their tourism routes and products to the South Korean people and present souvenirs to them. They will also hold a promotion conference in Changwon or Busan. Travel agencies and media from around South Korea will be invited to participate in the conference.

In recent years, Qinhuangdao has hosted an increasing number of South Korean tourists, as the country became one of its main tourist sources. The Qinhuangdao-Inchon Shipping Line, opened in July 2004, greatly contributes to the tourism, economic and cultural exchanges between the city and South Korea.

In April of this year, the Qinhuangdao-Inchon Shipping Line transported 683 standard containers, the highest amount since this shipping line was opened.

Among all the containers transported through Qinhuangdao-Inchon Shipping Line, Korean exports have principally been car parts while Chinese exports mostly comprised glass, sea products and sweet potato noodles produced in Qinhuangdao. In two years, the Qinhuangdao-Inchon Shipping Line has already carried 60,000 passengers and transported more than 7,000 standard containers.

Up to the end of July, the city had received 13,410 visitors from South Korea, an 18 percent year on year increase. The international travel agencies receive one or two South Korean tourist group a week on average, and the number of tourists has increased fourfold since the shipping line opened. Most tourists have been from Inchon and Busan, with those from Seoul, Jeju and Changwon comparatively less, showing the potential alive in the South Korean tourist source market.

In order to promote rapid investment, Qinhuangdao Economic & Technological Development Zone (QETDZ) adheres to the concept of intensive investment and strives to develop new functions to attract more domestic and international investments.

QETDZ makes full use of its geographic and transportation advantages with South Korea to strengthen economic and technological cooperation. Some 258 South Korean corporations such as LG Electronics, Castech Co. Ltd. have founded branches here, mainly dealing in building materials, textile clothes, food and catering. The South Korean investment accounts for 10 percent of the total foreign investment in Qinhuangdao.

QETDZ is one of the first national-level economic and technological development zones set up with the approval of the State Council in October 1984. It has established several multi-function parks with special features, such as Qinhuangdao Export Processing Zone, Yanshan University Science Park, and Hebei Software Industrial Base (Qinhuangdao).

The main industries in Qinhuangdao are of full varieties with metallurgy, building materials, textile, chemical industry, electronics, machinery, cereals and oil food stuffs processing, etc. It also offers a favorable supportive environment for investment enterprises in QETDZ in aspects such as production facilities, science and technology development and research, and human resources.

To provide convenience and priority for the South Korean enterprises' development, Qinhuangdao also designed and set up a South Korea Industrial Park according to their folk custom. Meeting their demands, the city carried out a series of preferential policies and support mechanism structures. An enterprises' association was established to oversee daily coordination management and communications with the local government.

A new service system collects the Foreign Investment Service Center, offices with the administration for industry and commerce, taxation, finance, house property, notarization, quality and technical supervision, water, electricity, accountants to improve efficiency and convenience.

The chief of Qinhuangdao's South Korean Chamber of Commerce who achieved his success here said that the work atmosphere is similar to home, the environment and climate are similar to South Korea and local government officials are timely in all respects. Investments here are more propitious to enterprise development, adding his hope for more companies to explore Qinhuangdao and enlarge their businesses.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Zhou Jing, September 3, 2006)