That is how Marian Sing of Tennessee in the United Stated described her feelings about Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, as she participated in the 7th China Zhengzhou International Shaolin Wushu Festival (Aug.31-Sept.5).

A member of the Walin Kongfu Team, Sing has been coming to Zhengzhou for the Shaolin Wushu Festival every year since 1997. Each time she returns, she said, she sees many changes.

“But this year is most impressive,” she said of the festival which aims to help its participants “make friends through Wushu and make progress together.”

This may also be an endorsement of Zhengzhou’s packaging the Wushu Festival with two other events: At the same time, the city also was hosting the 7th Zhengzhou National Commodity Fair and the 14th Sesame Network Annual Meeting.

“Wushu is at a stage while business is the main actor,” according to Chen Yichu, mayor of Zhengzhou where Wushu is said to have originated, attracting many visitors to the area each year from home and abroad.

Located in an agricultural area in central China, Zhengzhou is an important transport hub, connecting ten provinces, and a leading national distribution center. To promote its economic development, the city is trying to promote its advantages – its reputation as a wushu center, its central location in China which makes it an ideal place for a communications center as well as a transportation hub – to promote its economic development.

“Zhengzhou is building itself into a socialist modern commercial city. That is also the expectation of President Jiang Zemin when he inspected Zhenzhou in 1996,” Zhengzhou’s mayor said.

In addition, Zhengzhou is a national historical and cultural city with a great wealth of historical sites and cultural relics, the place where the earliest Chinese people settled. The city and its environs can boast of being a cradle of Chinese civilization.

But rather than sit on its past glories, Zhengzhou hopes also to weave its history into its new push to become an important commercial city that can compete with the more developed eastern coastal cities of China.

“Only development works,” Chen Yichu said.

To make the best use of all its advantages, Zhengzhou decided to develop in the mid-1990s an “exhibition economy.” This refers to developing the economy by organizing fairs, exhibitions, conferences, and etc.

In fact, the history of the Zhengzhou National Commodity Fair is as long as the Wushu Festival. Begun in 1995, the Fair is one of the three main national commodity fairs (the other two are in Tianjing and Shanghai), and the Zhengzhou National Commodity Fair has helped power the local economy

Established in 1992, Sesame network is an international network consisting of medium-sized towns and cities to promote mutual cooperation on social and economic development. The annual International Business Exchange (IBE) is one of the most important activities for the Sesame network, involving a large number of business men and women who gather together and conduct business exchange.

Zhengzhou joined Sesame in 1995 and successfully hosted the 12th Sesame Network Annual Meeting in 1999. Eying the meeting as an opportunity to build its international image, Zhengzhou offered to sponsor Sesame again this year when the planned host city had difficulty.

“To make the 14th Sesame Network Annual Meeting more attractive is one of the motives in combining the two conferences and one Festival together.” This year, the participants of the three events took part in activities together and visited each other.

“Everybody wins,” said Vice-Mayor Gong Liqun. “Combining three big events together benefits the three sides, and all get more than they expect.”

(china.org.cn by Zheng Guihong 09/13/2001 )