Lianzhou Foto festival, one of the cultural brands of the province, has reached its ninth year in 2013. In just nine years, the annual festival has become the most professional international photography festival in China, standing tall among other photo festivals around the world. Within these nine years, there have been countless number of photographers, artists, scholars and critics who brought their advanced ideas to Lianzhou, and conversely also helped to publicize the sound and image of Lianzhou to the rest of the world.
Granted the City of Photography in China, Lianzhou has been enjoying its international artistic reputation for some years. We have to continue to build on this by making each year’s photo festival a success, and strive to further the development of the cultural environment in Lianzhou. We hope that this festival serves as a cultural feast for both artists and visitors.
Culture is the soul of a country and a region, but also a reflection of the overall strength of the place. In the modern society, the competition of culture has become the core of all competitions between countries, regions, and cities. In order to bring out the vitality and energy of a historical and cultural city such as Lianzhou, it is necessary to build upon our cultural brand, and develop our cultural industries innovatively to further promote the integration between culture and urban civilization, architecture, ecology and tourism. We shall focus on improving the quality of our urban culture, as well as highlighting the local specialties and their cultural charm.
