On April 21st, a seminar was launched by Yichang Municipal Party Committee, along with the Yichang Municipal Government, to discuss the preparations for the forthcoming festival activities in 2014, such as the Qu Yuan Cultural Festival, which is to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in memory of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), a famous patriotic poet in Chinese history in his hometown, Zigui County. Huang Chuping, Member of Standing Committee of Hubei Provincial Committee of CPC, secretary of Yichang Municipal Committee of CPC, and Ma Xuming, Deputy Secretary of Yichang Municipal Committee of CPC and Mayor of Yichang Municipal Government, attended the meeting.

　　Yichang will witness three important festival activities this year, including Qu Yuan Cultural Festival, the Forth Yichang China Yangtze River Piano Music Festival and the First Yichang Art Festival. Qu Yuan Cultural Festival will be held from the end of May to the beginning of June. And the First Yichang Art Festival will be launched along with the Forth Yichang China Yangtze River Piano Music Festival in October. Up to now, related sectors and departments have done part of the preparatory work.

　　It’s learnt from the seminar that Qu Yuan Cultural Festival is a significant cultural activity which is reserved by China and will be held for long-term in Yichang City. This year, it will be jointly launched by the Ministry of Culture and the People’s Government of Hubei Province, themed Dragon Boat Festival of China and the Poetry of Yichang. In detail, the festival will include several activities: an opening ceremony, a dragon boat tournament, a picture exhibition of Chinese customs of Dragon Boat Festival, the first awards ceremony for Qu Yuan Prize in Poetry, a verse party, and so on.

　　After the report of plans and preparation works of these important cultural activities, it’s pointed out in the seminar that it’s of great significance to hold these cultural activities to improve the quality of citizens and strengthen the building of a model city, and that it’s also a good opportunity to market Yichang to the outside, bring in business and investment, and promote the economic development. It is full of importance as well as chances. Thus the Municipal Party Committee and the government pay much attention to it.

　　It’s agreed in the seminar that Yichang is a city of a long history, rich culture and good taste. Nature and history have endowed the city with rich natural resources like a beautiful landscape with green hills and clear water, huge mountains and big rivers, and also celebrities like famous poets and beauties. And in addition, there are huge power stations, big water reservoirs and other projects in Yichang. It’s stressed in the seminar that we are supposed to protect and make use of these world-class resources in a scientific way, especially when Yichang is striking forward to build itself as a megacity at present. We should take the responsibility to make these activities meaningful, special and influential, in a creative, economical and effective manner, so as to attract tourists and investors to come to Yichang and enrich the attractiveness of the city.

　　It’s required that related departments should learn from the successful experience of launching the three cultural activities last year, stick to the principles of holding the activities in a thrifty way, benefit the citizens and promote the development of the city and further improve the ability to hold cultural activities. It’s addressed that related sectors should follow the eight-point code, which is put out by the central government to cut bureaucracy and maintain close ties with the people, and other requirements made by Publicity Department, CCCPC in order to hold the activities in a thrifty way and make it culturally beneficial to citizens. The cultural activities are supposed to be combined with industrial development, the improvement of the people\'s livelihood and cultural and ethnical progress. It should be planned as a whole in combination with the government, the market and society. The activities are to focus on cultural communication, press publicity and tourism advertising. They should highlight practical cultural activities instead of opening or closing ceremonies, demonstrate the combination of culture, tourism and business activities, and also show the authority of The First of Qu Yuan Prize in Poetry.

　　It’s also stressed at the meeting that organizational leadership should be strengthened and all the plans should be strictly implemented. All the related sectors and departments should spare no effort to make these festival events successful. Thus a target-oriented responsibility system should be employed. Whoever in charge of the work will be responsible for the implementation of it. By doing a good job of city management, cultural undertaking, development of cultural industry and construction of top-quality literature and art, great efforts will be made to fulfill the dream of building Yichang into a megacity. (Reporter: Liu Zirong)