Visitors taking photos of the exhibits in the Creative & Design Cultural Industry Expo. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Purple clay teapots made by Li Jun exhibited in the Creative & Design Cultural Industry Expo. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The fourth China-Suzhou Creative & Design Cultural Industry Expo was held at in the Suzhou International Expo Center from April 18 to 20. The exhibition was a showcase for new achievements and products from the Works Collection for Creative Design Awards and China College Students' Designing Competition.

During the expo, the organizers arranged 87 themed activities, including 12 forums. There were 38 themed exhibition halls, attracting 585 organizations and institutions, and 444 private entities as well as 585 innovators who registered at the expo, and 228,000 visitors. 34,000 visitors (about 15% of all visitors) were from the design industry, related businesses, and academic and research　institutions.

This year's expo was aimed at leveraging specialties and promoting links among related industries for comprehensive development. Until the press release before the end of the expo, the trading　volume of all cooperation contracts, investment and financing contracts, production orders, creative and design service contracts and onsite sales rocketed over 5 billion yuan, which was 2.93 times higher than last year's record. The international animation copyright transaction amount reached $18.19 million. The turnover of designer's furniture was 12.5 million yuan ($2.02 million), including 4.5 million yuan ($726,750) from the sales of 900 designer furniture pieces and 8 million yuan ($1.29 million) from the sales of designer furniture collections. The orders received onsite in the Art and Living Exhibition Hall climbed to over 15 million yuan ($2.42 million).