Guangzhou Huangpu: Strategic Leap from Industrial Hub to Cultural Powerhouse, Building the Greater Bay Area’s Cultural Industry “Departure Port”

At the recently concluded 2025 Greater Bay Area Cultural Industry Investment Conference, the systematic layout of Guangzhou’s Huangpu District in the cultural industry garnered significant attention. As a traditional industrial powerhouse, Huangpu is accelerating its transformation into a cultural industry hub by building three core sectors—film and television production, animation and gaming, and stage performances—aiming to create a cultural industry “departure port” that serves the Greater Bay Area and radiates globally.

Three Parks Selected as “Annual Recommendations,” Building an Offshore Platform Matrix
At this Cultural Investment Conference, three parks in Huangpu District—Lihong Cultural Innovation Flagship Park, Kelinghui·Greater Bay Area (Huangpu) Cultural Export Base and Bay Area Digital Intelligence Film and Television Port, and Guangzhou Greater Bay Area Digital Culture Industrial Park—were selected as “Greater Bay Area Gold Cultural Investment 2025 Annual Recommended Cultural Parks,” forming a “three musketeers” lineup of cultural export platforms:

Lihong Cultural Innovation Flagship Park focuses on live streaming economy, gathering internet content creation companies such as Yuanyuan Media to form a “platform + industry” dual empowerment system;

Kelinghui Base covers over 200,000 square meters, equipped with high-end facilities such as virtual studios and computing power centers. It has attracted leading companies like Fubo Group and established a 500 million yuan industry fund;

Greater Bay Area Digital Culture Industrial Park is located in the core area of Yuzhu Port Economic Zone, gathering over 60 enterprises, including Yujia Entertainment and Yiteng Animation.

Film and Television Industry Ecosystem Perfected, Becoming a Hub for Content Creation in the Bay Area
In addition to the three major parks, Huangpu has also established the M-Base Mifang·Bay Area (Huangpu) Film and Television Cultural Export Industrial Park—the Greater Bay Area’s first film and television base dedicated to micro-short dramas. With over 4,000 square meters of shooting space and more than 30 styles of scenes, it can accommodate three production crews simultaneously, forming an intensive model of “office upstairs, filming downstairs.”

The park recently successfully hosted the main evaluation event for the “Vitality Plan” international investment, a core segment of the 2025 Guangzhou Film Industry Expo and Trade Fair. From 711 proposals across 21 countries, 30 top projects were selected for final review. Li Qian, President of the China World Film Association, stated that Huangpu was chosen for its “superior industrial ecosystem and firm commitment to supporting overseas expansion.”

Renowned director Liu Miaomiao noted that against the backdrop of tightening development space in Guangzhou, Huangpu is becoming a crucial base for film and television creation in the Greater Bay Area, thanks to its land resources, abundant filming locations (such as Lingtou Mountain and Nanhai Temple), and climate suitable for year-round shooting. This year, “Huangpu Yunfan” (the Huangpu Military Academy旧址 and Nanhai Temple) was selected as one of the “Eight Scenes of Guangzhou,” while the district’s “New Eight Scenes” further enrich filming resources.

Stage Drama and Gaming Industry Drive Dual Growth
The large-scale光影 immersive stage drama “Huangpu! Huangpu!” traces the history of the Huangpu Military Academy, utilizing multimedia technologies such as holographic projection to become a cultural hallmark of the region. As of the end of November, the drama had staged 690 performances, attracting over 200,000 viewers. Despite a 13.87% year-on-year decline in military academy visitors, theater attendance grew by 35%, with annual revenue projected to reach 9.18 million yuan, a 60% increase year-on-year.

In the gaming industry, Guangzhou’s “Game Valley” in Yuzhu District, with a total investment of 4.5 billion yuan, has gathered over 200 gaming companies, including 4399 and Duoyi, forming a comprehensive ecosystem encompassing art, music, and visual effects. In the “2024 China Mini-Game Top 100 Enterprises List,” several of Guangzhou’s 28上榜 enterprises are located in Huangpu, marking the accelerated rise of “Guangzhou’s third pole in the gaming industry.”

In June this year, the Guangdong (Guangzhou) Gaming Enterprise Service Center was inaugurated in Huangpu, offering comprehensive services ranging from game license review and legal consultation to overseas financial support. The Greater Bay Area (Huangpu) Gaming Industry Service Center has also been established, with plans to build a gaming industry museum and enhance vertical sector support.

Policy and Technology as Dual Engines for Growth
Huangpu District recently released “Several Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of the Cultural Tourism Industry and Copyright Economy,” introducing 20 specific policies, including:

• A maximum reward of 20 million yuan for cultural tourism projects with fixed asset investments exceeding 50 million yuan;
• Support of up to 2 million yuan for micro-short drama filming bases, equivalent to 10% of the investment;
• A maximum reward of 500,000 yuan for digital culture enterprises with annual overseas sales exceeding 1 million USD.

Technology empowerment stands out as a highlight. AR enterprise Gudong Intelligence, with its “AI + AR” cultural industry solutions, was selected as an “Annual Recommended Cultural Enterprise.” Its independently developed PVG (Polarized Volume Holographic Waveguide) technology achieves high clarity and low power consumption while significantly reducing costs. It has been applied in scenarios such as museum exhibitions and immersive tourism in scenic areas. Cao Bingchen, COO of the company, stated, “By digitally reconstructing cultural resources through AI algorithms, we transform static resources into interactive virtual content.”

In the first three quarters of 2025, Huangpu District’s revenue from cultural and related industries above a designated scale reached 63.663 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%, with an annual projection exceeding 85 billion yuan. Transitioning from a traditional industrial hub to a cultural powerhouse, Huangpu is building a solid foundation for the Greater Bay Area’s cultural industry expansion through a systematic layout of “platform construction + policy support + technology empowerment.”