Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    MORE than 200 guests from home and abroad, senior government officials and reporters from over 30 media outlets attended the launch ceremony of Shenzhen’s first English-language Web portal, www.eyeshenzhen.com, at Wuzhou Guest House in Futian District yesterday.

    Li Xiaogan, Shenzhen’s publicity chief, Jiang Yuyang, deputy director of the city’s legislature, Vice Mayor Wu Yihuan and Li Jun, vice chairman of the city’s advisory body, attended the ceremony.

    EYESHENZHEN is one of the key projects of the “Shenzhen Cultural Innovative Development Plan Until 2020.” The website is sponsored by the city government and run by the Shenzhen Daily, Shenzhen’s only English-language newspaper.

    According to Dong Haitao, editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily, the name “EYESHENZHEN” implies that people can take a close look at Shenzhen through the website. “EYE” is an acronym for equality, youth and excellence — qualities innate in Shenzhen. The pronunciation resembles “爱深圳” in Chinese, which means “to love Shenzhen.”

    “The launch of EYESHENZHEN is a very important part to show the city’s vision, attractions, infrastructure and overall offering to the citizens of Shenzhen, as well as people from around the world, through an easy to access and a centralized data point of needed and required information,” said Iwan Dietschi, Ritz-Carlton’s general manager in Shenzhen. Dietschi said for people who have not been to Shenzhen, EYESHENZHEN will be their first impression of the city and help them learn more about Shenzhen.

    “EYESHENZHEN creates a new opportunity for the city to communicate with the world, which will be a big step towards increasing and improving the visibility and the market presence of Shenzhen,” he said.

    Carol Quinn, a Shenzhen-based businesswoman from the U.K., said when she and her husband decided to start a technology company in China in 2008, Shenzhen was not as popular as Beijing and Shanghai.

    “We did some research and decided on Shenzhen because of the city’s prime location in the Pearl River Delta, which was beginning to make itself a name as an important technology hub in China,” Quinn said.

    She said expats have encountered certain challenges when living in Shenzhen, such as high education and accommodation costs, language barriers at hospitals and insufficient information offered in foreign languages.

    “I am delighted to see that the government has finally released its first official English-language Web portal for the city,” she said. “I believe this is going to be a huge asset for the city, not only for professionals who want to access helpful information for their businesses, but also for families who want to take advantage of all the amenities and services that are available to them.”

    Patrick Low, Futian Shangri-La’s general manager, said he hopes the website will show Shenzhen’s lifestyle, people’s livelihood and international events to be hosted in the city, which could show that Shenzhen is not only a young city, but also a city with a rich culture.

    “This portal will allow people to understand Shenzhen better before they arrive and also choose it as a destination for leisure or business,” Low said.

    Ronny Verdoodt, founder of a Shenzhen-based charity group A Heart for China, said he expects the portal to include more practical information revolving around people’s daily lives and show them where to go for certain things, such as information about community service offices, charity organizations and police offices.

    The web portal has four sections: Profile, Guide for Residents, Business and Things to Do. It covers information ranging from a city introduction, information about public services, business opportunities to leisure and lifestyle information. It will gradually set up an e-service platform to connect government departments to help expats deal with visa applications, certificates and paying taxes.

    Along with the website, an English-language WeChat service account was put into operation yesterday. In the future Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts will be launched.