Sustainable development through innovation

The first UNESCO Creative Cities Summit opened in Beijing on Sunday. Around 500 participants from the world have gathered to discuss how the creativity and innovation industries can help promote the sustainable development of cities.

The first UNESCO Creative Cities Summit opened in Beijing on Sunday. Around 500 participants from the world have gathered to discuss how the creativity and innovation industries can help promote the sustainable development of cities.

The four-day meetings provide a platform for participants to discuss and share their experience in achieving sustainable development in cities through innovation and creative approaches.

"Creativity and innovation industry can first of all improve the economic development and cultural communication of a city. It helps to make a city more internationalized. And more importantly, it can provide more job opportunities in a city." Liu Hui, member of Beijing Science & Technology Committee, said.

Beijing was named a City of Design by UNESCO last year due to its great strengths in Science and Technology and design creativity. The city's design industry raked in more than 120 billion yuan that very same year.

But some are questioning if old cities are suitable for new designs.

Cities across China are falling over themselves in the race for flash architecture. Some radical design even provoked an outcry, demanding that more attention is paid to preserve cities' historical characteristics.

Critics say Beijing is becoming increasingly unrecognizable with new avant-garde architecture that doesn't fit the ancient low-laying city. But many architects and designers see the Chinese capital a blank canvas, and say there's still plenty of room for new designs. The challenge for the government is to make sure modern constructions complement those that have stood here more than a thousand years. And that they co-exist, rather than compete to serve as icons for the city.