To commemorate one of China's greatest poets, the 25th China Li Bai Poetry Festival kicked off on Oct 13 in Maanshan, Anhui province.

Li Bai (AD 701-762), lived and died in the locale that would later be called Maanshan, where he wrote about 60 famous poems and essays.

Many other ancient Chinese poets and writers also lived in the area and created works that are today used in textbooks.

One of five major events begun by the provincial government in 1995, the theme of the annual festival this year is culture in daily life. Organizers aim to make it "a festival for all people, a gathering of friends and a trading platform".

Activities during the festival include artisticperformances, poem writing and recital contests, business negotiations and sightseeing tours. Many other cultural activities in the city's three districts and three counties are open to locals free of charge.

Its earliest habitants date back more than 300,000 years, but the history of Maanshan as a city started in October 1956. Covering 4,049 square kilometers, it is home to 2.3 million people.

Located in easternmost Anhui between the provincial capital Hefei and Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu, Maanshan boasts an advantageous geographic position.

The Nanjing-Anqing intercity high-speed railway scheduled for completion in 2015 will cut travel time to Nanjing to only 15 minutes, and to less than 80 minutes to Shanghai.

The city also has one of the 10 largest harbors along the Yangtze River. It is open to international ships and is one of the first that started direct routes to Taiwan.

Continuing to expand, the harbor will have an annual handling capacity of 100 million tons of cargo, ranking as the fourth-largest along the river and the first in the province.

As one of the first industrialized cities in New China, the manufacturing sector generates more than 66 percent of Maanshan's GDP.

Beside a number of traditional industries such as steel production, equipment manufacturing, auto making and chemicals, the city is also developing its emerging sectors including the IT and photovoltaic industries, the modern service sector and modern agriculture.

The city is home to many high-tech zones and industrial parks, some of which are State level. With a combination of preferential policies, the investment cost is only half of that in Shanghai and 75 percent the level needed in nearby Nanjing, said officials.

Six universities in the city, along with nearly 40 research institutes and occupational schools, provide well-trained professionals, making the city a national commercialization center for iron-based new materials and a national pilot city for intellectual property.

In the government's long-term plan, the city will become a center of heavy machinery manufacturing, a logistics hub, a provider of "green" farm produce and a leisure and resort destination.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/14/2013 page11)