Charity fair to open

The first national charity fair, which will be held in July in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, will provide a platform for social organizations to exchange experience in running charities.

At the fair, major domestic social organizations, experts and governments will exchange opinions on philosophy and raise public awareness about their activities.

"Shenzhen, as a city of migrants and first of the special economic zones, has conducted registration system reform for eight years, making it rich in experience to exchange with others," Xu Qin, mayor of Shenzhen, said at a news conference on Monday in Beijing.

More than 350,000 volunteers have registered in the city, home to more than 4,800 registered social organizations. Many of these organizations engage in education or social surveys.

As a pilot city where a social organization can register without finding a sponsoring administrative department, Shenzhen has a lower threshold.

"But we will highlight the social organizations' transparency and make their conduct fair," Xu said.

The city has become well known for its support of social organizations after it gave legal status to One Foundation, which encountered trouble in other cities in 2010 because it existed in a gray area.