Event promotes interconnectedness

Representatives from around the globe congregate to establish greater international airline ties, Li Yu and Peng Chao report.

One of the biggest annual events for the civil aviation sector, the 22nd World Route Development Forum, also known as World Routes, will be held in Chengdu, Sichuan province from, Sept 24 to 27.

"World Routes will be a strong boost for Chengdu to expand into a national central city and world-class aviation hub," said Yan Yuhua, airline marketing manager of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.

Yan said this year's event will attract more than one thousand representatives from airlines, airports, government departments and international organizations, the largest in scale in its history.

The participants include United Airlines, Qatar Airways, Air New Zealand, Heathrow Airport, Brussels Airport, Incheon International Airport, Tourism Australia, and Japan National Tourism Organization.

The agenda will include a keynote speech, a strategic summit, a tourism summit, one-on-one meetings, city tours, exhibitions and folk performances.

Yan said the exhibition area this year will total tens of thousands of square meters.

The exhibition hall specified for Chengdu will cover 1,400 square meters, which will fully display the city's flight networks, aviation economic development, as well as tourism and culture.

In addition, the World Tourism Summit will be held for the first time, bringing together industry insiders and top industry leaders to discuss the interactive development of tourism, aviation and economies.

The one-on-one meetings will last for three days.

"Our original plan was to hold the one-on-one meetings for only two days, but the delegates are so active and positive about this activity. Therefore, we enlarged the scale to satisfy the needs of the delegates," Yan said.

Launched in 1995, World Routes is as honored as the Olympics or World Expo for the worlds' civil aviation circle.

The event has been held in cities including Abu Dhabi, London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dubai, Vancouver and Beijing, all famous international cities.

Chengdu is the second city on the Chinese mainland to hold the event, following Beijing in 2009.

"The fact that Chengdu won the bid to host the World Routes over five other competitive rivals demonstrates its comprehensive strength and competitiveness, and the world's expectation to share the opportunity offered by Chengdu," said Katie Bland, director of routes at UBM Live, organizer of the World Routes.

"The city has been attracting worldwide attention with its huge market potential and development opportunities; it provides a perfect platform for the 2016 event," she said.

Chengdu has rich experience in hosting such events as World Routes.

In April 2012, the city held the 10th Route Development Forum for Asia, a leading annual event for the civil aviation sector in Asia, with the number of exhibitors reaching a record high.

In May 2015, the city held the Airport Cities Asia Pacific 2015 event, attracting nearly 600 delegates from across the world. The delegates discussed how to promote cooperation between China and other Asia-Pacific countries to develop airport cities, as well as innovations in airport design and logistics.

Jin Dazhong, deputy director of the Chengdu Port and Logistics Office, said such events provide a perfect platform for Chengdu to show its latest achievements to airlines, airports and investors from around the world, and creates a great opportunity for the city to expand its flight network.

Jin said the city will hold one-on-one meetings with 36 airlines from home and abroad, pushing forward the opening of more international air routes.

He said the city is considering opening more than 20 international routes, connecting it to more cities in North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is the fourth-busiest airport on the Chinese mainland, after Beijing Capital International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

It handled 42 million passengers in 2015, an increase of 12.1 percent against the previous year, according to statistics released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The number of overseas passengers traveling through the Shuangliu airport exceeded 4 million in 2015, and its cargo transport reached 556,600 tons, both ranked first in Southwest China.

Contact the writers at pengchao@chinadaily.com.cn and liyu@chinadaily.com.cn

Bringing history to the future

Chengdu, a hub city in Southwest China known as the "land of abundance" since ancient times, covers a total area of 14,603 square kilometers and has a population of 16 million.

The city features unique culture, delicious food, rich business opportunities, a laid-back lifestyle and, of course, the world-renowned giant pandas.

With a history of more than 2,300 years, Chengdu has profound cultural resources.

The city's Jinsha Ruins have been hailed as a significant archaeological discovery that shows a thriving culture existed in Chengdu more than 3,000 years ago.

The Dujiangyan Irrigation System, one of the major water conservation projects of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), is still functioning today.

Mount Qingcheng, 20 kilometers from Dujiangyan, is the birthplace of Chinese Taoism. It was added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 2001, along with the Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

The city was the first in Asia to be named by UNESCO as a City of Gastronomy. Many famous Chinese dishes, including mapo tofu and kung-pao chicken, originated here.

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, located in the northern part of the city, is home to more than 100 giant pandas and boasts the most advanced technologies in the world for the breeding and protection of the giant panda.

The city is also rising as an economic star on the world stage, with its fast economic growth and dynamic business atmosphere.

Some 278 Fortune Global 500 companies have a presence in the city. About two thirds of the world's iPads are made in Chengdu, and half of all laptop chips are assembled and tested here.

The city boasts advantageous industries that include automobile manufacturing, electronic information, rail transit and bio-medicine.

The city's GDP reached 559 billion yuan ($83.8 billion) in the first half of this year, an increase of 7.5 percent year-on-year, according to its statistics bureau.

Forbes magazine listed it as one of "the next decade's fastest-growing cities globally", while the World Bank deemed it a "benchmark city for the investment environment in inland China".

(China Daily 09/24/2016 page18)