On the morning of October 26, Ningbo, a historic and cultural city, greeted a cultural and tourism feast: the 9th Zhejiang Book Fair, the 2024 Maritime Silk Road Culture and Tourism Expo, and the 2024 Ningbo International Tourism Exhibition, were held at Ningbo International Conference and Exhibition Center, jointly hosted by Zhejiang Publishing United Group, Zhejiang Publishing Industry Association, Ningbo Daily Group, and Ningbo Culture, Tourism and Exhibition Group.

This is the first time for the three major exhibitions made their debut in a new form of “three in one”, to build the brand of “Maritime Silk Road Culture and Tourism Exhibition”. With the theme of “Classic Reading, Cultural Sharing, and Cultural and Tourism Integration”, as well as the policy support, state-owned enterprise hosting, social participation, and public interaction, they have embarked on an international, market-oriented, and digitalized exhibition path in Ningbo, injecting new vitality into the cultural prosperity and economic development of Zhejiang Province.

This year’s exhibitions will use six exhibition halls from No. 1 to No. 6 of Ningbo International Conference and Exhibition Center, lasting until October 27. There are six theme exhibition areas: “Classic Inheritance”, “Reading Integration”, “Digital Culture and Tourism”, “Maritime Silk Road Impression”, “Coastal Port City”, and “Hand-in-Hand Tours”. The exhibition covers an area of over 30,000 square meters, attracting more than 730 participating companies. 75 indoor activities and over 1,100 supporting activities outside the exhibition halls will be held successively, further radiating the influence of the exhibitions to the whole city and even the whole province.

At the opening ceremony, the “Annual Recommended Book List of Zhejiang Book Fair” and the “Autumn Fun of Ningbo” autumn cultural and tourism trip products were released. According to the organizing committee of the 9th Zhejiang Book Fair, based on recommendations from hundreds of publishing houses across the country, the new recommendation book list consists of 50 recommended books in six major categories: party and government, economics, literature, history, science popularization, and children’s literature. Most of the listed books are new books published from 2023 to 2024.

In order to gather public welfare forces and aid rural revitalization, the “Lighting Reading Micro Wishes for Xinjiang Readers” collection activity has been launched.

The “Donating Classic Books to the Western Areas” book donation activity of Ningbo citizens has been launched, as an innovative public welfare initiative to create a “city of books”. This year’s book fair will collect a batch of books from the citizens and donate them to schools in areas assisted by Ningbo. On site, 10,000 copies of public welfare books were donated to Liangshan area of Sichuan Province, Kuche of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, and Tianjun of Qinghai Province.

According to preliminary statistics, since the Zhejiang Book Fair launched the book donation activity in recent years, Ningbo has donated over 100,000 volumes of books to the corresponding assisted areas.

In addition, the signing ceremony for the settlement of the Hungarian (Ningbo) Cultural and Art Center, the centralized signing ceremony for purchasing reading services from physical bookstores, and the signing ceremony for major cultural and tourist projects were also held on the day.

Reading can bring a city to life, culture can nurture a city, and civilization can guide a city. For the first time, this year’s exhibition combines a book fair, a tourism exhibition and a culture and tourism expo, to connect the past, the present, and the future. This cultural feast will surely consolidate deeper industrial consensus, create more cooperation opportunities, and nurture more fruitful development achievements.

This exhibition is a new starting point for cultural reform and development in Ningbo, indicating that Ningbo has taken solid steps in promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism and in building an international exhibition brand.