The Huafa Community Management and Service Center for Expats in Zhuhai's Nanping Town, the city's first facility of its kind, opened to the public on Feb 5 after nearly six months of trial operation. 

The 260-square-meter (2,800-sq-ft) center was built to increase the management and service capacity for Zhuhai expats at the community level. It has eight functional areas for consultation, cultural exchanges, and voluntary services. It also features a bakery and an outdoor relaxation area. 

The center will provide high-quality services for expats, especially for temporary residence registration, government affairs consultations, foreign-related policy promotion, and professional legal and psychological counseling.

Expats in Zhuhai make lanterns for the Lantern Festival. [Photo by Zhao Zi / Guanhai App]

Since its trial operation in September 2022, the center has planned and organized themed events on food, culture, and Zhuhai's history and scenery. Altogether eight activities have been held on traditional Chinese culture and eight professional legal and psychological counseling events have been offered. 

The number of expats living in Zhuhai's Xiangzhou District makes up nearly 70 percent of the city's total, and around 540 of them live in the Huafa Community. These expats come from more than 30 different countries including the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

An official of Nanping Town noted that it is very necessary to provide one-stop services for expats, as Zhuhai is an internationally friendly city and a major gateway of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 

Zhang Ting, deputy director of the Zhuhai Foreign Affairs Office, said that the office will support Xiangzhou in constructing more management and service centers for expats and international communities, as they provide much-needed foreign-related services. 

Of note, Feb 5 also marked the traditional Lantern Festival. Expats and their family members were invited to the center to experience traditional Lantern Festival customs, such as making lanterns, guessing riddles, eating tangyuan, a traditional treat that resembles a miniature full moon, and listening to music played on the guqin, an ancient Chinese seven-stringed zither.