Siming district in Xiamen, East China’s Fujian province boasts thriving businesses and is home to the city's busiest business area. [Photo/WeChat account: fjrbwx]

Siming district in the coastal city of Xiamen, East China's Fujian province has seen profound and transformative change over the past 40 years since the establishment of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone.

The district, which is situated in the central urban area of Xiamen, boasts thriving businesses and is home to the city's busiest business area.

Xiamen Hualian Commercial Building, which is located on Zhongshan Road in Siming, used to be considered the largest comprehensive retail mall in Fujian province in the 80s and 90s. The commercial building opened to the public in 1987, and was regarded as a "shopping?paradise"?by local residents.

Standing at the most prominent position?on Zhongshan Road, Xiamen Hualian Commercial Building has witnessed major development of Xiamen's commerce and trade over the past decades.

In recent years, Siming has explored new ways to foster new business models and tactics with a number of new commercial complexes springing up, and efforts have also been made in the transformating and upgrading old business districts.

At the same time, new industrial parks with leading industries and superior enterprises have been set up thanks to the local government's efforts.

Xiamen Software Park in Siming has boosted its development opportunities over the years and has become an industrial landmark of Xiamen with a slew of high-tech businesses and innovation incubators.

The park is home to a group of renowned companies across a range of fields such as the information safety company Meiya Pico, the facial recognition enterprise Meitu, healthcare tech company YLZ Information Technology, and animation giant Migu. The total business revenue of Siming's software industry?amounted to 29.3 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) in 2020, and four enterprises in the park made China's top 100 internet companies list.

Wang Huibin, vice-president of Meitu, spoke highly of Siming's business environment and said that Siming offers fertile soil for innovation and entrepreneurship for high-tech, high-growth,?and high-added value enterprises.

Taking up five percent of Xiamen's land and a quarter of its population, Siming recorded one-third of the city's total GDP. Currently, the district has cultivated four industrial chains valued at 100 billion yuan, which are finance, commerce and trade, software and information, and tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions).

At the same time, Siming has been ramping up efforts to accelerate the development of emerging industries, and aims to inject new vitality into the district's development.