On July 16, the second (Qinhuangdao) Garden Expo of Hebei Province, hosted by the Hebei Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and organized by the Qinhuangdao Municipal People's Government, was officially launched. On the morning, the leaders of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government, the leaders of the State Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the leaders of the relevant national industry associations (scholars) and the representatives of the relevant garden departments attended the opening ceremony of the Expo and watched the landscape design of the Garden Expo Park.

On the afternoon, the “Hegang Cup” first Hebei International Urban Planning and Design Masters Invitational Interim Results Report was held at the Dongjing Road Hotel in Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao. More than 40 people attended the meeting including Zhang Gujiang, deputy governor of Hebei Provincial Government; Kang Yanmin, Party Secretary and Director of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department of Hebei Province; Meng Xiangwei, Secretary of Qinhuangdao Municipal Party Committee, deputy secretary of Qinhuangdao Municipal Committee; Zhang Ruishu, Mayor and Deputy Inspector of Hebei Provincial Office; Yin Zhengnian, Standing Committee Member of Qinhuangdao Municipal Committee; Xue Yongchun, Executive Deputy Mayor, National Engineering Survey and Design Master; Li Xiaojiang, Member of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development Expert Advisory Committee, former Dean of China Urban Planning and Design Institute; Cao Ziyu, Secretary of Party Standing Committee of Hebei Port Group Co., Ltd.; Liu Guanghai, general manager of Hebei Port Group; Shirley Feng, executive vice president and secretary general of Shenzhen Industrial Design Industry Association, director of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center; Wu Tie, chief planner of Hebei Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and members of the expert group of design masters.

As the key activity at the launching ceremony of the 2nd (Qinhuangdao) Garden Expo in Hebei Province, the “Hegang Cup” first Hebei International Urban Planning and Design Masters Invitational Mid-term Results Report features a lineup of top design masters at home and abroad to report on the theme of transformation and rerive of Qinhuangdao, including the He Jingtang team of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; the Meng Jianmin team of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; the founder of the Bauzenbach, and the Pritzker Prize winner Christian de Buzanbak / Christian de Portzamparc Team; founder of Foster Architects, Pritzker Prize winner Norman Foster / Norman Foster team; Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid Architects Patrick Shu Mach / Patrik Schumacher team; the national engineering survey and design master Zhou Wei and Tianjin Huahui Engineering Architectural Design Co., Ltd. urban planning host Huang Wenliang  team. The six design teams designed and planned the urban renewal from different design angles.

In addition, the conference invited Li Xiaojiang, the national engineering survey and design masters, members of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development Expert Advisory Committee, the former president of the China Urban Planning and Design Institute, Shirley Feng, the executive vice president and secretary-general of the Shenzhen Industrial Design Industry Association, the director of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, and Peng Lixiao, the editor-in-chief of the magazine “City, Environment and Design” and the Distinguished Professor of the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, expressed their views and opinions on the six groups of expert team programs from their own perspective.

The team of experts made an in-depth discussion on the transformation and upgrading of the 100-year-old port area of Qinhuangdao West Port, with the new goal of “International Tourism Port and International Cruise Port”, focusing on the combination of design and city, design and environment, design and humanities to build a new coastal city with the modern service industry as the leading factor, and to upgrade Qinhuangdao's century-old port into a new model for the transformation of China's ports and the integration of port and the city.

Born by the harbor and prospered by the port

This is the mission of Qinhuangdao since the opening of Qinhuangdao's port 120 years ago. The port drives the development of the city, and the city strengthens the port. Qinhuangdao has taken another solid step in 2018– transforming the century-old port to design and innovate a new look of the new city.

This year, Hebei Province's industrial design has a strong development. Under the background of coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Xiong'an New District, the province's various industries are facing the need for transformation and upgrading. We need to integrate the concept of “design +” into urban planning and construction, taking into account multiple factors such as ecological environment, urban development, transportation development, and industrial structure. We also need to promote transformation by design, which is not only innovating industrial development mode, but also upgrading people's living environment and quality, thus to meet the new needs of a better life, make the sky bluer, the cloud whiter, and realize the green dream of Qinhuangdao.