The Shanxi Brands China Tour, which visited eight cities last to promote Shanxi quality products around the country, is making its first stop this year in Nanjing, Jiangsu province's capital, April 17-22, and had 38 types of traditional culture on display mixed with its modern business spirit, with some new ideas thrown in.

The provincial companies'booths employ a two-dimensional bar code for WeChat (a popular Chinese chat site), which, provincial commerce bureau staff explain, uses new technology to publicize Shanxi's brands, many of which are designed to meet customer demands.

For their individual booths, more companies are using decorations with typical Shanxi characteristics, this time around, to attract the attention of more visitors. And they put more work and money into this year's booths to improve brand marketing.

In recent years, many Shanxi companies have tried to expand their scale to new fields and have brought the new products to the Nanjing exhibition. The Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co, for instance, has some stainless-steel cookware on display this time, bringing the company and ordinary people closer together in their daily lives and increasing the value of their raw materials.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw