Advancing Cultural Progress to Build Beijing into a National Cultural Center

Abstract

The development orientation of the capital city must be defined. Beijing’s urban construction must move toward safeguarding and strengthening its core functions. To accelerate the development of the national cultural center, in August 2017, Beijing set up a leading group as it sticks to advance in an all-round way with greater cultural awareness and confidence. Its status as the national cultural center was enhanced. In 2018, Beijing carried out cultural construction in all areas to develop its capital culture. The analysis of the report shows that Beijing ranked 9th in the Global Cities Index, 22nd by overall strength and 7th by cultural exchange as it was in 2017. On the domestic front, Beijing ranked fourth after Hong Kong SAR, Shenzhen and Shanghai in terms of overall competitiveness, but ranked first in terms of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship and influence. It shows that the capital city’s overall competitiveness was leading the country, as relevant statistics indicated. Among the first-tier cities in the Chinese mainland, as shown in relevant index analysis, Beijing ranked first in terms of cultural competitiveness, cultural influence, influence of image communication, cultural creativity and new cultural innovation. It fully showcases Beijing’s great strength and competitiveness as the national cultural center and its more important place in the country. The analysis shows that Beijing plays a leading and exemplary role in the cultural development nationwide. However, as China’s cultural and international communication center, the city still has a long way to go in improving its cultural competitiveness and influence before catching up with major cities in the world.