Beijing Suburbs News
On September 20th, the “Sleepy Cat” cultural and creative commercial street at the Great Wall International Animation Valley in Huairou, Beijing, held its opening ceremony. The event, themed “HELLO Animation Valley!”, marks a significant step for the Great Wall International Animation Valley towards becoming a world-class source of animation IPs and a hub for the industry.
Opening ceremony site
The ceremony commenced with the upbeat melody of the theme song, “Full of Vitality.” Sun Wenkai, Deputy Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee; Wang Jiequn, Party Secretary and Director of the Municipal Radio and Television Bureau; Yao Zhongyang, Deputy Secretary and Deputy Director of the Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau; Zhang Qiang, Secretary of the District Party Committee and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Huairou Science City; Liang Shuang, Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee and District Mayor; Peng Lixia, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the District People’s Congress; Liu Jiugang, Chairman of the District Political Consultative Conference; and other leaders, along with domestic and international animation masters, representatives from animation and trendy toy companies, universities, and organizers, jointly launched the opening ceremony.
The “Sleepy Cat” Cultural and Creative Commercial Street at Great Wall International Animation Valley officially opened.
Sun Wenkai stated that Beijing’s rural tourism is transitioning from “single-point development” to “comprehensive quality improvement.” The Great Wall International Animation Valley, driven by the dual core of “Great Wall culture + animation creativity,” organically integrates world cultural heritage with the trendy animation industry, exploring a new path for the city of “cultural IP empowering rural areas and industrial integration activating resources.” It also provides replicable and scalable practical experience for the “Hundred-Thousand Project” and high-quality development of rural tourism. He hopes to further deepen industry-academia collaboration, refine the commercial street’s business format, integrate IP creation, scene experience, and consumption conversion, make good use of resources from universities and animation masters, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Great Wall culture, and maintain its long-term vitality. He also emphasizes strengthening digital empowerment, incubating more original IPs, opening up online and offline dissemination channels, expanding the brand influence of the Great Wall International Animation Valley, driving village collective income growth, providing local employment for villagers, and promoting the symbiotic development of industry and village.
Sun Wenkai delivered a speech
Zhang Qiang stated that the Great Wall International Animation Valley is a concrete practice in promoting the innovative development of the cultural industry and an important support for ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods and promoting integrated urban-rural development. Huairou District will thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s cultural thought and the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches on Beijing, focusing on building a world-class strategic science and technology integration development demonstration zone. It will prioritize the deep integration of agriculture, culture, commerce, tourism, sports, and science, creating an east-west Great Wall cultural tourism belt, writing a new chapter in the joint construction of towns and villages in the north and south, and promoting the construction of the animation valley with higher standards and more practical measures, thus establishing the city brand of “Beijing’s northernmost point, Huairou’s most beautiful.” The district will adhere to the guidance of masters, attracting top domestic and international masters and high-quality talent teams to build a world-class source of animation creativity. It will prioritize industry, constructing a three-in-one industrial ecosystem of “international animation IP incubation + Beijing original content + trendy toy derivative economy,” enriching immersive cultural experiences and cultural tourism scenes. It will prioritize benefiting the people, coordinating the protection, inheritance, and utilization of Great Wall culture, improving the mechanism for linking farmers, strengthening the collective economy, and broadening income channels for villagers. It will prioritize ecology, expanding the diversified realization paths of ecological value, allowing green mountains and clear waters to complement the wonders of animation. Huairou District will further optimize its business and industrial development environment, making Huairou a hotbed for innovators, a paradise for entrepreneurs, and a blessed land for residents.
Zhang Qiang delivered a speech.
Sun Lijun, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, stated that the Great Wall embodies a profound and enduring cultural heritage, while the countryside holds a continuous stream of vibrant and vivid creative material. Animation art can serve as a bridge, seamlessly blending the cultural heritage of the Great Wall with the everyday life of the countryside. Our presence in the Animation Valley will allow us to leverage this fertile ground for creation at the foot of the Great Wall to unearth human stories, using the language of animation to tell the stories of Huairou, enabling artistic creation to step out of the studio and into the countryside, and empowering rural development with the power of original IPs.
The event showcased a range of achievements. The Animation Valley digital map was officially launched, leveraging culture to empower rural revitalization and creating a “Digital Bohai.” Supporting policies from the city, district, and town levels were explained, and a number of high-quality animation creation resources were successfully established. Studios of animation masters such as Sun Lijun, Yu Shui, and Hao Zhiqiang officially moved in. Original IPs such as “The Happy Life of Sleepy Cat” and “The Adventures of Science Cat,” as well as the “Sleepy Cat” series of emoji packs, were newly launched. Several locally created films from Huairou, including “Snowy Mountain Mastiff King,” “Dream Space,” and “Little Wild Boar Run,” were also promoted. Professor Sun Lijun of the Beijing Film Academy donated his paintings on-site, with the proceeds from the auction specifically earmarked for rural revitalization.
Release of the Anime Valley Digital Map
Master Studios Settle In
Sun Lijun donated paintings
Industrial development and cultural tourism scenarios were implemented simultaneously. Bohai Town signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Beijing Kaku Media Co., Ltd., and the “Chinese Animators Paint Huairou” themed event was launched concurrently. The Beijing University Animation Creation Practice Base was also unveiled and put into operation. Within the town, the managing teams and animation companies showcased their achievements, covering multiple fields such as commercial operation, content creation, scene development, cultural empowerment, and industry-academia collaboration. Twelve managing stores opened their doors to welcome guests, and a series of fun activities, including cosplayer street parades, blind box treasure hunts, stamp collection for gifts, and gifts with purchase, were staged, attracting a large number of citizens and tourists to visit and take photos, bringing animation out of the screen and into the rural streets and alleys.
Kaku Animation Strategic Cooperation Signing Ceremony
The “Chinese Animators Paint Huairou” event kicks off.
Signing Ceremony for Beijing University Animation Creation Practice Base
Signing of contracts with in-house managers
Animation companies sign agreements to move in
A representative from the commercial street management team stated, “We are very optimistic about the development prospects of the Great Wall International Animation Valley! This place closely connects high-quality animation IPs, cultural tourism, and rural ecological resources, building a high-quality platform for creators to collaborate with academia and start businesses. We hope to further refine and launch original animation-themed cultural and creative products through this new window, bringing unique and trendy items to the public eye. By leveraging this new animation business model to attract visitors, revitalize rural consumption, and drive rural development…”
From planning and implementation to the opening of the distinctive commercial street, from the arrival of animation masters to the clustering and growth of the cultural and creative industries, the opening of the “Sleepy Cat” cultural and creative commercial street at the Great Wall International Animation Valley is not just the debut of a new cultural tourism scene, but also a vivid practice of Huairou exploring the integration path of “animation + cultural tourism + rural areas,” empowering the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas with the power of culture. The next step will be to leverage the cultural heritage of the Great Wall and the ecological foundation of the countryside to continuously attract visitors, activate consumption potential, promote the coordinated development of animation IP incubation and trendy toy derivative industries, further enhance the distinctive cultural tourism brand of the Great Wall International Animation Valley, and contribute to Huairou’s construction of a world-class strategic science and technology integration development demonstration zone.
A representative from Bohai Town stated that by leveraging the combined advantages of the Great Wall’s cultural heritage, the natural environment of the mountains, and original animation IPs, and by integrating online and offline platforms, rural resources have become visible, tangible, and transformable. Moving forward, Bohai Town will further improve its industrial support systems, optimize its business ecosystem for rural innovation, attract animation creators and cultural and creative teams, promote the integration of the animation industry into rural areas, empower the collective economy, and drive villagers to increase their income and achieve prosperity. This will pave a distinctive path for rural revitalization in Bohai, characterized by cultural empowerment, digital drive, and industry-village integration.
It is understood that the Great Wall International Animation Valley was jointly developed by Huairou District, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio and Television, and Beijing Film Academy, with the support and guidance of the Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism. The project is an important carrier of the key area for high-quality development of rural tourism at the municipal level, and also a demonstration area of Beijing’s “Hundred-Thousand Project” and “Great Wall Reception Hall International Rural Innovation Land”. The project has a planned total area of 40 square kilometers, covering five administrative villages: Dongtai, Dazhenyu, Zhuanghu, Sancha, and Tiekuangyu. The “Sleepy Cat” cultural and creative commercial street is located in Dongtai Village, bringing together 12 distinctive shops, including the Valley Art Center, Fanbeilu Art Center, “Sleepy Cat” Bread School, and “Shengji Bobo·Bohai Gift Shop”.
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