Kinder, Gentler Zhongshan  

By LIU HUANZHI

ZHONGSHAN City of Guangdong Province has launched its very own charm offensive by mounting a series of lectures, exhibitions and demonstrations in Zone E's UBPA (Urban Best Practices Area) Display. Under the theme "Charity and Harmony – Better Urban Life," Zhongshan stands out as the only one of 80 participating cities to make charity its theme at the Shanghai World Expo, and it can demonstrate a long pedigree for its association with the pioneering spirit of the Chinese nation.

Zhongshan's annual charity parade has been held for 23 years, as much a part of the splendid culture and history of the city as its recent achievements in urban construction. Local and national hero, and the city's namesake Sun Yat-sen hails from here, and his statue and former residence are meticulously reproduced in the Shanghai Expo. The city itself has a history of more than 800 years, since the establishment of Xiangshan County in 1152 during the Southern Song Dynasty. It was renamed Zhongshan in commemoration of Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan), trail-breaker of China's democratic revolution. Facing the South China Sea, it has developed from a small semi-agricultural, semi-commercial town to a modern city of industrial manufacturing featuring vigorous economic development, a beautiful environment, the characteristic culture, and stable social order. The tides of the sea ebb and flow, but Zhongshan's rise is smooth and untroubled.

An ancient folk song is popular on its streets:

Half cloudy heaven, half abundant earth

a village rests on the bank of the river;

Setting sails to harvest the sea, and

stone embankments to parse it from

the sky…

The place seems to stretch out time and space, inviting everyone who enters to feel its growth, vitality, ease and beauty.

From Small A to Big A

Mike is a German investor in industrial washing machines who has been living in Zhongshan for many years. Mike described the charms he succumbed to: "I enjoy my job in Zhongshan more than any other. On weekends I relax in Hong Kong and Macao, enjoying the same benefits as those working at my headquarters in Hong Kong, but without the worry of dealing with big city headaches like traffic jams. The air in Zhongshan is fresher too, and there are more green areas." Many expats like Mike commute between Zhongshan and Hong Kong. In 2006, when the Delonghi Group of Italy established its manufacturing base in Zhongshan (Zhongshan Anzhao Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd.), the representative it stationed in Zhongshan was initially reluctant to settle here. Years later, things have reversed themselves; many people are reluctant to leave when their tenure expires.