A lion dance performance is staged at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Lianjiang Red Orange Festival and Household Appliances Expo. [Photo/Nanfang Plus]

A total of 11 projects worth 7.78 billion yuan ($1.11 billion) were signed at the first day of the 2019 Lianjiang Red Orange Festival and Household Appliances Expo, which opened in Lianjiang Jiuzhou Square of Zhanjiang on Dec 7.

Lianjiang has the largest red orange planting base in the country. This year, Lianjiang has a planting area of more than 70,000 mu (4666.67 hectares), an annual output value of 1.5 billion yuan, and a total of 38 red orange business entities. With the help of modern e-commerce platforms and advanced internet of things technology, Lianjiang Red Orange can be found in the supermarkets of first-tier cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen.

In addition, Lianjiang is also China's small home appliances industry base. At present, Lianjiang has a total of 639 home appliance companies, 114 of which are above designated size. The city's production and sales of rice cookers and electric kettles account for about 30 percent of the country's total. A well-known small household appliances industry cluster with advantages in scale, leaders, production capacity, supporting facilities, and labor force has been formed.

For this year's expo, Lianjiang has integrated e-commerce, industry, tourism, and culture to display its home appliances, furniture, and specialty agricultural products. It also held local concerts, lighting exhibitions, fireworks displays, horse performances, cultural evening parties, and Cantonese opera shows.

In recent years, Lianjiang has seen rapid economic development in its counties, driven by the expo's success. In 2018, Lianjiang ranked 185th among the top 400 county-level economies in the country for competitiveness, and entered the top 100 ranking of consumption power of county-level cities in China.