Shenzhen began to implement the strategy of "building a culture-based city" to make it a city of high-quality culture in 2004. The culture industry has been booming since then, grossing a total added value of 16.339 billion yuan, accounting for 4.77 percent of the city's total GDP and rising 20.76 percent from the year earlier period.

    Culture and Arts

    Cultural undertakings never lost their momentums. The city currently boasts 10 artist associations and 19 professional artistic organizations, with more than 3,000 cultural and literary professionals. A batch of cultural festival brands have been established, including Shenzhen Grand Theater Arts Festival, the international biannual exhibition of Chinese wash paintings, the international biannual piano contest as well as the season of domestic and overseas select performances. The Grand Theater arts festival had been held 13 times and has become a grand and elegant arts event. Regular municipal cultural events include the biannual Shenzhen Golden Autumn Community Cultural and Arts Festival, the children's arts festival and the annual reading month.

    In 2004, the city's cultural sector obtained 580 prizes above provincial levels, including 52 international prizes and 227 national ones. The Fifth Reading Month attracted more than 5 million people. The city's cultural circle gave 283 internal performances in the year and 316 performances were staged to the public. Cultural centers at all levels held 571 exhibitions and organized 2,343 mass cultural activities.

    ICIF (International Cultural Industry Fair)

    ICIF is China's only State-level cultural industry fair. The first fair opened on November 18, 2004 and last five days. More than 102 enterprises from 50-plus countries and regions attended the fair, which was reported by 161 overseas media with 1,053 journalists. The fair attracted 500,000 visitors from all over the world and achieved the goal of building a platform for presenting, trading and exchanging information on cultural products.

    'Plaza Culture'

    In July 1986, a makeshift stage made of bricks and cement was set up in the Children's Activity Center on Hongli Road for a novel show, in which admission was free for audience while performers had to pay 0.5 yuan. It is a talent show where any audience member can give a performance on stage. In the past years, more than 20,000 shows and 6,200 activities had been given on the stage.

    There were performances almost everyday on the city's about 200 squares.

    Cultural Venues

    There were 480 dancing and singing venues and 134 get-together recreational houses in 2004. There were nearly 5,000 cultural venues with more than 100,000 employees and an output of 20 billion yuan. The Shenzhen Performance Corporation has established its brand.

    Press and Publications

    Shenzhen is one of the country's leaders in press and publishing. The city boasts 14 newspapers and 40 magazines, had one comprehensive publishing house, three audio/video publishers, as well as 88 correspondent offices of mainland and Hong Kong journalists.

    The city published 821 kinds of books and 828.07 million copies of papers in 2004.

    The Shenzhen Press Group has a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Daily, Shenzhen Economic Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Daily, with 5,000 employees and a total assets of more than 5 billion yuan. The group is one of China's largest press groups with highest modernization level and strongest business power. Its turnover in 2004 exceeded 2.6 billion yuan, with a net profit of 160 million yuan.

    Printing Industry

    Shenzhen is one of the country's major printing bases. It is among the leaders in general design, production scale and strength, printing equipment and technology, enterprise management and product quality.

    There were more than 1,580 printing enterprises, with more than 120,000 employees and 7 billion yuan in registered capital. Shenzhen Artron Colour Printing Co., Ltd. won a Benny Award, known as the "Oscars in Printing."

    Broadcasting, Television and Film

    Shenzhen has a complete product line of the broadcasting and TV industry. It has one radio station, two TV stations, two radio-and-TV stations and 20 cable TV stations. The radio and TV networks have covered the city's whole population. The digital TV channel was formally launched in 2005.

    Relics and Museums

    Shenzhen is rich in historical sites. More than 500 relic sites have been discovered, including 118 protected sites of historical importance, one at national level and 10 at provincial level.

    The Dapeng Fortress was listed in the national heritage protection list, while Pengcheng Village in Dapeng Township was among China's earliest villages of historical and cultural importance. The excavation of Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 B.C.) tombs at Wubeiling Village, Nanshan District, was among the nation's top 10 archaeological findings in 2001.

    Apart from a government-run museum, There are 16 private, collective and public-private-cooperative museums. The museums had more than 40,000 antique items and showcased 24 exhibitions.

    Cultural Exchanges with Other Countries

    The city has launched many activities for international cultural exchanges, such as the Shenzhen Grand Theatre Arts Festival, Shenzhen International Folk Culture Festival, Shenzhen Biannual International Wash Painting Exhibition, Happy Valley International Magic Festival and Asian Children's Arts Festival.

    'City of Piano'

    Local musicians have earned the city a fame in many international piano contests. Li Yundi won first place in Chopin International Piano Contest, becoming the first gold winner in the reputable event in 13 years. Chen Sa and Zhang Haochen also made their names in international piano competitions. With Shenzhen Art School as a leading exponent, Shenzhen's piano education has been in the leading place in China. Famous pianist Professor Dan Zhaoyi has fostered world-class piano players, earning a reputation worldwide. Piano art enjoyed a wide popularity among local primary and middle school students. Shenzhen's piano possession rate is very high among cities, with 8.2 pianos for each 100 households. A number of pianists have settled down here.

    'City of Design'

    Inspired by Hong Kong's design industry, Shenzhen's design sector has gradually shown some edges. Shenzhen boasts a large number of influential designers from all over the world. Plane designers like Chen Shaohua, Han Jiaying and Zhang Dali are well-known in the national circle. China's bidding symbol for Olympics was designed by Shenzhen artists and a large quantities of works given thumbs-up in the national and international circles were produced in the city.

     Base of Animation

Shenzhen is one of China's animation bases and earliest in processing overseas cartoons. In the mid 1980s, inland area's first Hong Kong-invested animation company, Jade Animation, was set up in Shenzhen, hiring more than 70 percent of the country's creators at its peak time, and producing a large number of cartoon films for the country and world.

    Thanks to its booming animation industry, Shenzhen has become one of the world's most important manufacturing bases of video games, with its low cost and strong production capacity in cartoons, two- or three-dimensional cartoons and game software. A simple OEM maker for American and Japanese at the beginning, Shenzhen has now started to create works by itself, filling China's blank in three-dimensional cartoon films and making a historic breakthrough in national animation industry.

    Shenzhen was home to more than 500 enterprises creating and producing animation works, employing nearly 10,000 staff and achieving several hundred millions of output value each year. Shenzhen Polytechnic offers a major in animation.

    Dafen Painting Village

Located in the Buji area in Longgang District, the village covers 4 square kilometers. A Hong Kong painting businessman Huang Jiang came to settle down in the village in 1989 with dozens of painters. They rent houses for making and selling paintings, a business soon attracting more painters to the village. Currently there are 305 businesses here, with more than 3,000 painters and 700 workshops.

    Its sales volume surged to a record 140 million yuan in 2004, a great success in introducing Chinese cultural products to the world.