On September 17, the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) opened in Nanning. At the expo, this year's "City of Charm" program showcased the distinctive features of cities from multiple countries. As China's "City of Charm," Changchun presented its development achievements in key competitive industries, including rail transit, optoelectronic information, as well as aviation, aerospace and their application. The city also promoted its featured products, ice and snow cultural tourism, and other regional resources, comprehensively demonstrating its industrial strength and development vitality.

A 200-Square-Meter Pavilion: Advanced Tech Meets with Ice-and-Snow Romance

The CAEXPO spans 170,000 square meters of exhibition space. As China's "City of Charm" at this year's expo, Changchun has created a 200-square-meter custom-built pavilion themed around "Splendid Light & Shadow, Ice & Snow Changchun." It consists of three sections, namely "Ice and Snow Seasons: Northeast Splendors," "Sci-Tech Revitalization: Industrial Might," and "Jilin's Premium Products: Openness and Mutual Benefits," presenting the city's distinctive features and core industries.

Stepping into the pavilion, visitors can hardly take their eyes off Changchun's exhibits. Among them are Changchun's top optoelectronic products, such as Jlight Semiconductor's products and OLED thin-film encapsulation materials, revealing the old industrial base's strong capability in the optoelectronic industry. The cultural and creative products for "Ji Bing" and "Ji Xue," the mascots of the Changchun 2027 Winter Universiade (hereinafter referred to as the Universiade), look delightfully adorable. Another exhibit drawing visitors' attention is a robot in a red vest. With a writing brush in hand, it writes the Chinese characters of "Changchun" stroke by stroke, while onlookers scramble to capture the moment on their phones.

To change the perception that it is only known for ice and snow in winter, Changchun presents its seasons through the "Ice and Snow Seasons: Northeast Splendors" section. "Spring has its flowers, autumn its moon; summer has its cool breeze, winter its snow," and each season in Changchun offers its own way to be experienced.

The "Sci-Tech Revitalization: Industrial Might" section showcases the city's industrial strength. As the cradle of China's automotive, film, optics and aviation industries, Changchun is rich in scientific and educational resources. On display are Hongqi cars, a 3D model of the Fuxing bullet train, the Jilin-1 satellite constellation and high-end optical chips, which represent the achievements of the city's specialized, refined and innovative enterprises, demonstrating the old industrial base's transformation toward new quality productive forces and drawing many visitors to stop at the booths and make inquiries.

The "Jilin's Premium Products: Openness and Mutual Benefits" section puts the spotlight on special advantageous industries including ginseng, sika deer and edible mushrooms, biomedicine and forest specialty products. Deep-processed products of ginseng, sika deer and edible mushrooms are arranged in neat order, while product tasting sessions and interactive experiences draw enthusiastic participation from the guests. Changchun is pitching its premium consumer goods to the ASEAN market while inviting ASEAN farm produce and consumer products into its own market to open a two-way trade channel.

From Exhibition Hall to Commercial District: Northeast Ice-and-Snow IP Goes South to Nanning

At this year's CAEXPO, Changchun moves beyond the traditional, single-mode display and innovatively adopts an integrated layout of "indoor custom-built pavilion+outdoor ice-and-snow carnival+all-domain three-dimensional communication." This achieves the goal of "demonstrating the city's strength inside the pavilion, showcasing the charm at the commercial district, and expanding influence across the internet." By combining physical and digital resources and connecting online and offline channels, Changchun vividly presents a new image of the modern "Spring City" of northeast China with "ice and snow as its defining feature, sci-tech innovation as its engine, and openness as its underlying character," advancing economic and trade cooperation and cultural tourism exchanges in tandem.

Inside the pavilion, in addition to presenting industrial and cultural tourism achievements in a concentrated manner, Changchun also sets up several interactive check-in spots that balance visual appeal with a sense of participation, enabling visitors to see, feel, and experience firsthand the city's warmth and industrial strength.

Outside the pavilion, Changchun transports the ice and snow resources at 43°N, its ice and snow sports culture, and the youthful atmosphere of the Universiade to Nanning in south China, with events held in the core commercial district of Nanning MixC. It hosts the Changchun ice and snow season promotional seminar and the "city ambassadors" meet-and-greet themed around "ice-and-snow stars gathering," and launches some north-south city exchange activities such as ice and snow performances and local culture competitions. Using a model of "offline interaction plus full online" live streaming, and leveraging the popularity of leading IP and Olympic champions, the city promotes its ice and snow IP to audiences of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and ASEAN and generates multiple effects, such as sparking people's interest in cultural tourism, expanding the brand's influence, stimulating consumption, and warming up the Universiade. These efforts have shaped the image of a youthful, vibrant, and open "Spring City" of northeast China.

Through "City of Charm": Changchun Looks Forward to Two-Way Cooperation with ASEAN

With higher-level platform, broader cooperation opportunities, and warmer humanistic atmosphere, this year's CAEXPO serves not only as a platform for policy communication and industrial matchmaking but also as a bond of people-to-people connectivity, creating valuable opportunities for cities across China to engage with ASEAN.

As an old industrial base, Changchun has industries of optoelectronic equipment, rail transit, aerospace remote sensing, and biomedicine that are highly compatible with ASEAN's development needs. Leveraging the CAEXPO platform, the city brings its four calling cards, namely ice and snow resource, sci-tech innovation, film, and automobile, to Nanning. It promotes its industrial and cultural tourism resources while learning from the advanced experience of all parties to continuously expand its circle of cooperation partners.

As the Universiade approaches its 100-day countdown, Changchun, leveraging ice and snow, aims to achieve three objectives through the CAEXPO. In terms of city image, it presents to ASEAN a complete picture of Changchun that combines robust capabilities with a warm human touch. In terms of the economic and trade sector, it promotes the matchmaking of competitive industries including optoelectronic equipment, rail transit, aerospace remote sensing, and biomedicine with the ASEAN market, seeking opportunities for trade, investment, and technological cooperation. In terms of cultural tourism, it deepens two-way exchanges in culture, tourism, sports, and youth engagement, attracting ASEAN tourists to Changchun while welcoming ASEAN cultural resources to the city, so as to achieve people-to-people connectivity.

Changchun's participation in this year's CAEXPO is not merely about showcasing exhibits but about bringing the city's opportunities and sincerity. Through the window of the "City of Charm," Changchun hopes that more ASEAN countries will come to know and understand the city for further investment and visits, building a two-way cooperation bridge between Changchun and ASEAN for economic and trade connectivity, joint development of cultural tourism, and industrial matchmaking.

Source: Changchun Daily  Editor: Liu Jiadi