Expats pose for a group photo at Shaxi Ancient Town in Taicang. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Taicang is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, and is known as "the hometown of German companies in China", since it is home to about 400 German enterprises but only accounts for about 9.2 percent of Suzhou's total area.

A group of seven expats from Italy, Yemen, Iran, Costa Rica and Chile went on a two-day tour of Taicang from Sept 9 to 10 to experience the international side of the city.

As the 2022 Taicang Oktoberfest was underway, the group was invited to taste authentic German beer at a local western restaurant on Sept 9.

Fassari Davide Salvatore, a Shanghai-based Italian entrepreneur who loves traveling and cooking, said he was amazed at the beer's unique bitter and cool flavor.

As a successful businessman, he offered insights into Taicang's strength as a hub for German entrepreneurs. "I think it's important in a business to form a group. It is a win-win for all if you put your energy and efforts altogether, and you create a system like this," he added.

Fassari Davide Salvatore (center) displays a basket he weaved at a cultural center in Shaxi Ancient Town. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In addition to holding the exotic festival, Taicang is also working on catering to consumers from all over the world. When visiting the Xiangtang Art Garden International Resort in Shaxi town, Dulce Waira Villarroel Seymour, an international student studying international business and trade in Nanjing, said the resort is very suitable for family trips, after having a look at the theme parks, family camping sites, and game settings of the resorts.

Meanwhile, she suggested that holding more promotional activities, organizing Chinese and foreign festivals and offering discounts on these special occasions will help the resort attract more international visitors.

Dulce Waira Villarroel Seymour (third from left) takes a group photo with other expats at Xiangtang Art Garden International Resort in Shaxi town during her two-day trip to Taicang city. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The resort will be the first LINE FRIENDS family camping village in Asia, and is scheduled to open to the public in October. LINE FRIENDS are the original characters of the leading mobile messenger app LINE.

While making novel activities and entertainment more internationally popular, Taicang spares no effort to promote its traditions at a series of global arenas.

Qiu Guoliang, an expert at dragon and lion making art, shared his stories about how he has spent the bulk of his time making the unique art gradually noticed and accepted by more international audience.

The art has been identified as an intangible cultural heritage at the municipal level in Taicang. As the dragons and lions are totally handmade, they are usually used as performance tools at traditional Chinese celebrations or as special gifts given between governments representing the Chinese spirit.

Qiu Guoliang (third from right) teaches expats to play lion puppets at the Shuangfeng Dragon and Lion Culture Museum. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

At a livestream conducted on Sept 10 at the Shuangfeng Dragon and Lion Culture Museum, Qiu, who is currently in his 80s, looked back on his glorious past to pursue the endeavor, including building the fire-breathing dragon for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, making six dragons and 18 lions for the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama, former president of the United States in 2009, and designing Haibao – the mascot of the 2010 Shanghai Expo.