Xiamen, part of the China (Fujian) Free Trade Pilot Zone, has been designated as a national hub for transmitting Chinese culture overseas, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

The city is among the 13 cities and districts recently listed by the ministry, which also include the Tianzhu Bonded Area in Beijing, Xuhui district in Shanghai and Wuxi in Jiangsu province.

Building a batch of national cultural bases is part of the country's broader push to enhance cultural communication and trade with other countries and regions across the world.

Xiamen in East China's Fujian province has seen a steady growth in cultural industry in recent years.

Statistics show that as of the end of 2017, nearly 1,200 culture-related enterprises had settled down in Xiamen, with registered capital topping 6 billion yuan ($942 million).

Its status as a national cultural hub is expected to fuel further growth in the cultural sector, according to an official with the Xiamen municipal bureau of commerce.

The output of cultural industry in Xiamen is targeted to hit 34 billion yuan by 2020, an annual increase of 15 percent.