Hai’an, a county-level city in Nantong, holds a cultural and art festival at the 523 Cultural Industry Park on May 23. [Photo/IC]

The added value of the cultural industry in Nantong has reached 39.2 billion yuan ($5.67 billion), accounting for 5.07 percent of the city’s GDP, the Nantong Daily reported on May 28.

Those with local specialties, such as red-wood carving, home textile design, embroidery, dyeing, Nantong-style bonsai and Banyao kites, contribute to more than 50 percent of the city’s total, worth nearly 20 billion yuan.

Nantong is currently home to 188 examples of intangible cultural heritage, including 10 at the State-level and 53 at the provincial level.

In recent years, the local government has placed a great deal of emphasis on developing its cultural sector through nine aspects: boosting key cultural industries, constructing key industrial projects, supporting key cultural businesses, building key industrial parks, revitalizing historic and classic industries, improving the cultural market system, increasing cultural consumption and expanding related foreign trade.