Once a year, encounter happiness. Recently, the “Happy Cities of China Forum 2023” was hosted in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province by the magazine Oriental Outlook, run by Xinhua News Agency. Shenyang was once again shortlisted as the 2023 China’s Happiest Cities, which was released by the forum.
The survey-and-selection event of “China’s Happiest Cities” has been successfully held for 17 consecutive years. The event in 2023 adopted the theme of “High-Quality Development Makes Cities Happier” and focused on how cities can follow a people-centered approach, continuously modernize the system and capacity for governance, achieve high-quality development, and pursue a distinctive path of urban development with Chinese characteristics. It aimed to assess the happiness indexes of China’s cities and showcase vibrant practices in the construction of happy cities. The voting for the event started this June, receiving widespread attention across the country.
The organizing committee determined the list of 220 candidate cities and urban districts for the “2023 China’s Happiest Cities” based on the comprehensive analysis of the previous lists and the preliminary results from the big data. The conduction of this selection combined subjective investigations such as big data collection, online questionnaires, material declarations, on-the-spot research, and panel discussions with objective data. The evaluation experts selected Shenyang as one of China’s happiest cities (including provincial capitals and cities specifically designated in the state plan), with other cities including Chengdu, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Changsha, Hohhot, Qingdao, and Taiyuan.
The current survey results demonstrated that hosting major events can significantly enhance urban happiness. This year, three major professional leagues in football, basketball, and volleyball have settled in Shenyang. Moreover, the Liaoning’s Men’s Basketball Team has achieved remarkable success with two consecutive championships in the CBA league. Additionally, Shenyang has won the bid to host the 15th National Winter Games. In the future, Shenyang will become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter National Games in China. The vitality from sports has instilled confidence in the people of Shenyang. Every cheer and chant like “1-2-3-4, I love Liaoning’s Basketball Team” can transform into a sense of happiness for the residents.
Urban happiness is also reflected in the profound integration of culture and tourism. The survey’s findings suggested that well-known historical and cultural cities can enhance their own soft power and achieve high-quality development through innovative empowerment, contributing to the happiness of urban residents. As a city with abundant historical and cultural resources, Shenyang boldly innovates in carrying forward the fine historical traditions and balancing the relationships between tradition and modernity as well as inheritance and development by establishing a new ecological framework for civilized industries. This approach allows citizens to get reacquainted with the “old IPs” and gradually fall in love with the “new appearances.”
The renovated Shenyang Square City relies on historical buildings, old stories, and time-honored brands to activate historical and cultural resources and create a distinctive cultural symbol of Square City. It features emerging art forms and cultural and tourism industries, such as stand-up comedy, immersive theater performance, and LARP games, resulting in a unique collision between old and new cultures. The resplendent Laobeishi has attracted a myriads of visitors under the night sky, full of vitality. The phenomenon of “Phoenixes Dance at Laobeishi” once became an internet sensation and a household name. Today, with a history of nearly 400 years, Laobeishi is known as the first “city that never sleeps” in Northeast China, drawing tourists from all over the world.
The urban historical and cultural heritages, represented by Hongmei Cultural and Creative Park, serve as an important symbol of the city’s connotation and characteristics. Numerous old industrial areas have been transformed into complexes that integrated museums, exhibition halls, cultural enterprises, and leisure tourism areas, regaining vitality and vibrancy. The revitalization of cultural and tourism scenes has increased the public’s enthusiasm to visit there and met their spiritual and cultural needs.
