Xushuguan in Suzhou New District. [Photo/WeChat account: snd-szgxqfb]
Five cultural projects in Suzhou New District (SND) worth a total of 24.66 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) were signed at the high-end development conference for Suzhou's cultural industry on Jan 12, local media outlets reported.
Xushuguan ancient town has received the most investment among the five projects, sitting at 16.4 billion yuan. It covers an area of 46.7 hectares and features six themed areas, seven themed streets, and 40 tourist sites focusing on cultures along the Grand Canal and in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region. The town is expected to receive 5 million tourists every year.
The second project is a digital industrial base established by Tencent that has received 8 billion yuan in investment. It will be the first time the tech giant has established a digital industrial base in the YRD region. The base will consist of a digital industrial center, a digital city scientific innovation center, an industrial application center for artificial intelligence, and a development center for the new culture and tourism industries.
The third project is a cloud capacity center jointly developed by China Mobile and SND, which aims to cultivate a group of cloud computing companies by integrating the internet with cutting-edge technology such as 5G and cloud computing.
The fourth project, being carried out by SND and Ximalaya FM, an online audio-sharing platform, will focus on increasing cultural consumption, preserving local cultures, and improving public cultural services.
SND is also working with the Jiangsu branch of Sino Weibo to improve its image and promote itself to a wider audience.
