Daniel Marsland, a German college student, learns to make dumplings with Yue Yang, a local primary school student and his parents at a Nanshan restaurant Monday. Marsland and another 300 students from 20 countries attended a series of activities during the First China Shenzhen International Children's Culture and Art Festival, which was an integral part of the First International Cultural Industry Fair Shenzhen that ended Monday (Nov. 22).

While the curtain of the First International Cultural Industry Fair Shenzhen (ICIF) was drawn Monday (Nov. 22), its influence will linger with bountiful culture projects signed in Shenzhen.

"As we aim at building a culture city, we should rely on Shenzhen's commercial advantages to provide a trading platform between investors and cultural products, bringing more excellent culture projects to Shenzhen," said Shenzhen Vice Mayor Yan Xiaopei, who attended the ICIF closing ceremony.

The five-day fair was not only a dazzling cultural feast but also a meeting between culture-conscious investors and artistic products.

The biggest deal was concluded at the calligraphy and painting auction, which achieved total trading of 92 million yuan (US$11 million).

The nationally acclaimed Dafen Village also signed contracts for several cooperation projects and painting orders totaling 304 million yuan, which included building a fine art school at the village.

The Blue Coast Filmmaking City and Liyuan Village, the two TV and movie studio complex projects, will soon be implemented in Shenzhen at a cost of 716 million yuan.

"The fair attracted lots of antique amateurs and professionals nationwide, which shows huge commercial potential for the antique collection industry," said Wang Yueqing, the auction organizer from Shenzhen Curio World.

As Sun Jiazheng, minister of culture, said in the ICIC opening ceremony speech, the ICIF should develop into the "the Chinese Export Commodities Fair" in the nation's cultural industry. In 2003 Shenzhen's cultural industry already hit a high of 13.5 billion yuan, accounting for 4.7 percent of the city's GDP.

The fair once again put Shenzhen under the spotlight, as more than 477,000 people from home and abroad visited the exhibition. A total of 102 enterprises from more than 50 countries were represented.

The nation's first cultural industry fair garnered massive media attention with 1,053 journalists from 161 media organizations covering the ICIF, including 35 foreign media such as NHK, VOA and the Singapore Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao.

Editor: Olivia