The press conference of Research on Chinese Cities Global Image was held at 2 pm on Aug 30, 2010 in Shanghai. Leaders of each selected city, experts and scholars, mainstream world news media, and central and local news media of China attended the conference.

This research aims to get to know how foreigners think about China, to display China’s soft power and to enhance Chinese cities’ global image. Started in April, 2010, the activity has come to an end now.

Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xi’an, Changsha, Kunming and Changchun cities have been selected as the top ten (Chengdu and Nanjing tie for third).

To ensure the scientific authority of this activity, the research center for international public relations at Fudan University has invited related experts to form a special team and design the first research and evaluation system of Chinese cities’ image. The system relates to 12 indicators such as city culture, city environment, investment value and development potential.

Using elements such as cities’ comprehensive competitive power and in-and-out bound travel of foreigners as a reference, the organizing committee of the activity has finally chosen 30 candidate cities to conduct research. There are mainly two ways of doing the research: subjective investigations and submitted materials. In order to guarantee the sample range and research results to be scientific, Gallup China Consulting Organization was entrusted to do the research. Respondents in this research come from more than more than 100 countries, across six continents, totaling approximately 7980 people.

According to the responsible officers in the organizing committee, this research on Chinese cities’ global image is the first of its kind. They can feel that Chinese cities are paying more and more attention to their global images. It’s sad that the award ceremony will be held in October, 2010.

Brief Introduction to Chengdu

A picture shows the scenery of Chengdu city, captial of Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Chengdu City is the provincial capital of Sichuan povince. It has been defined as the technology, trade, finance, transportation and communication center of southwestern China by the State Council. Chengdu is a famous historical culture city, with a population of 11.4 million and an area of 12,100 square kilometers. It has been selected as national civilized city, China mainland investment model city, China’s best tourist city, and national garden city and so on. It has also been elected as the capital of fine food by UNESCO. Many experts and scholars consider Chengdu as “the representative of China and the heart of western China.”

Chengdu is an important opening widow of western China toward the world, owning two national level development zones: the Chengdu hi-new tech development zone and the economic and technological development zone. 175 of the world’s top 500 corporations such as Volkswagen, Intel and Siemens have settled in Chengdu. Nine countries, including the US, Germany, France and South Korea, have set up consulates in Chengdu. Chengdu has formed a comprehensive system of electronic information, aviation, machinery, medicine and food to provide foreign investment with good industry related service.

On November 18th of 2007, a joint investigation team formed by the World Bank, State Information Center and National Development and Reform Commission of China, declared that Chengdu, as an inland city of western China, had made great achievements and had become a model city in terms of improving the investment environment.

In order to strengthen Chengdu’s place as the investment center of western China, and to achieve sustainable development, Chengdu’s city government has put forward various basic construction plans. 50 billion yuan ($7.35 billion) has been gathered to invest in the construction of telecommunication infrastructures. In addition, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation’s plan, Chengdu Shuangliu Airport will be a national-level airport in five to ten years and become China’s fourth-largest airport. Thus Chengdu’s role as a commercial center will also be promoted.

In order to provide convenient and effective administration services, Chengdu also continues to reform its administrative examination and approval systems. The whole examination and approval system has been optimized, with the fewest administrative licenses among the same cities in China.

Tourists take photos before the statue of Chairman Mao located at the Tianfu Square of Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province.

By Chen Yanqiu (chinadaily.com.cn)