Beijing building itself to be cultural capital

Metropolis leverages a wealth of historical heritage and digital technology for high-quality development

Beijing has insisted on inheriting and developing its rich and profound Red culture, distinctive local culture and thriving innovative culture over the past few years, and the city has taken solid steps to build itself into an advanced cultural capital with Chinese characteristics, local officials said.

In 2020, Beijing released a medium and long-term plan that runs from 2019 to 2035 to advance its transition into a national cultural center.

The plan said that by 2025, Beijing's status as a national cultural center will be significantly enhanced, the cultural values of its residents and their levels of cultural awareness will be substantially improved and the city's demonstration and leading role in the creation of a modern culture will be more prominent. By 2035, Beijing will become a national cultural center in all respects.

Over the past two years, "we have proactively created a flourishing socialist culture and promoted socialist moral and ethical progress", said Mo Gaoyi, head of the Publicity Department of the Beijing Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Beijing has also issued a series of plans for patriotic education in the new era to boost civic morality. It has also focused more on developing a civilized cyberspace environment and promoting comprehensive management in the cultural and entertainment fields.

Progress has been made in the construction of a famous historical and cultural city, with unprecedented efforts mobilized to protect, inherit and utilize its historical and cultural heritage, Mo said.

The Beijing Central Axis, for example, is to seek UNESCO World Heritage status in 2024.

The move will provide impetus for the protection of heritage and further promote Beijing's status as a national cultural center, said the city's cultural heritage authorities.

The city plans to build two national cultural parks themed on the Great Wall and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Currently, Beijing is upgrading the China Great Wall Museum, and will build a Grand Canal-themed museum.

Another effort of the city is to deepen supply-side structural reform in the cultural sector in a bid to provide diverse high-quality cultural events, and enhance the people's sense of gain and happiness in the sector.

Beijing now ranks first in China by the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores. Its registered museums have also increased from 162 to 204 in the past 10 years, with more than 600 offline exhibitions and 100 online exhibitions launched annually.

"We use science and technology to empower culture and promote the high-quality development of the industry," Mo said.

The income of the city's cultural industries above designated size has continued to grow, accounting for 15 percent of the nation's total in 2021, he added.

Beijing is also implementing a strategy of cultural digitization. It has built 11 national culture and sci-tech integration demonstration centers, ranking it first nationwide.

The city is home to 42 unicorn companies in the cultural sector, accounting for about 50 percent of the nation's total.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn