The five-day 22nd China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair concluded on Monday, having drawn more than 6,300 exhibitors and millions of visitors from home and abroad — a testament to its position as a window for global cultural exchanges and local cultural promotion.

As China's largest cultural expo, this year's event — which spanned about 160,000 square meters — offered a rich array of performances, lectures and interactive activities. A dedicated exhibition area was set up for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies, serving as a cultural preview of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, to be held in Shenzhen in November.

More than 120,000 cultural exhibits were displayed at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center from Thursday to Monday, with 260 events featuring the launch of new products.

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Guangdong province's exhibition group organized 69 activities this year, including 10 product debut events, 30 trade promotion and negotiation sessions, and 16 consumption-boosting activities. The group secured deals expected to attract more than 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) in direct investment.

As the host city, Shenzhen fully leveraged the event to showcase its prowess in artificial intelligence. At an AI-themed exhibition area, 52 exhibitors unveiled more than 60 new products.

Flagship products from Shenzhen included AI applications developed by Tencent, an intelligent cockpit system from carmaker BYD, and intelligent robots from technology company Ubtech.

Exhibitor Liu Bin from Tianjin, who has attended the fair several times, said this year's event featured more AI elements and increased investment in the cultural and creative sectors.

Liu, who runs a cultural and creative company in Shenzhen, said the city's mature industrial chain and convenient logistics network have enabled the company to produce better products at lower costs.

"The fair offered good opportunities to communicate with others and learn more about the market," he said.

Zhang Xiaoshan, an intellectual property manager at the Bangkok-based Ignite World Public Company, worked at the Thailand booth in the APEC exhibition area. She said the company hopes to build more business-to-business connections through the event and promote its intellectual properties to the vast Chinese mainland market.

The fair also served as a window for regional culture.

"We hope to use intellectual properties to introduce people to Lingjiatan culture, thereby boosting cultural tourism," said exhibitor Xu Jianzhong.

At an exhibition area themed "Creative China", Xu displayed his company's latest intellectual property products, hoping to use the appealing images to help more people learn about the artistic inspiration behind them — the Lingjiatan culture in Anhui province, an ancient cultural heritage site dating back more than 5,000 years.

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"The enthusiasm at the exhibition exceeded our expectations," he said.

Xu's team had 400 prepared brochures on the fair's opening day, and only two remained by the end of the day. A blind-box toy series launched by his company sold more than 500 units on the first day.

Visitor Sissi Zhang praised the fair's upgrades, noting that this year's event had incorporated more elements catering to younger generations and aligned more closely with international aesthetics.

"I was networking throughout the day and couldn't manage to see the entire fair," she said.

Contact the writers at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com