Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province, recently was included in the first batch of China's industrial design characteristic demonstration cities.

The other three were Shanghai's Pudong New Area, Shenzhen, and Chongqing.

An industrial design characteristic demonstration city refers to a city that has a group of national industrial design centers and that has made achievements in manufacturing design breakthroughs, high-end manufacturing design talent cultivation, as well as the construction of national industrial design institutes.

A visitor examines a forest fire fighting drone model at the 2021 World Industrial Design Conference on Oct 22 in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo/VCG]

In recent years, Yantai has attached great importance to the development of industrial design. The city has issued a series of measures to introduce and cultivate industrial design talents.

The city has released a number of incentive policies. Eligible enterprises can receive a one-time reward of up to 10 million yuan ($1.56 million).

To date, the city has built two industrial design centers at the national level, 26 at the provincial level, and 87 at the municipal level.

Since 2019, Yantai has hosted the World Industrial Design Conference three times. Two products from Yantai have won the gold award of the China Excellent Industrial Design Awards.