Tourism Special: West Lake Festival 2009 goes out with a bang

The Hangzhou West Lake International Expo - also known as the West Lake Expo - has recently completed its eleventh successful event. This year it took as its theme: "Confident Hangzhou, the High Quality West Lake Expo" and also launched a grand firework festival.

Wang Guoping, Party secretary of the Hangzhou municipal Party committee, said: "This year the event was the largest in its history and had the most stimulating content. It also attracted the highest level of visitors."

In total, the event consisted of 121 conferences, exhibitions and related activities. During its 22 day run, beginning Oct 18, the expo received a total of 12.9 million overseas and domestic visitors. Its website also had 5.74 million hits.