Four Chinese cities have been selected to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) on November 1, 2017.

Created in 2004, the UCCN covers seven creative fields, namely Crafts&Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and Media Arts.

The four Chinese cities, Changsha (media arts), the Macao Special Administrative Region (gastronomy), Qingdao (film) and Wuhan (design) are among 64 cities from 44 countries and regions which have joined the network.

Qingdao is the first city in China to be named a "City of Film," becoming one of 13 UCCN Film cities in the world. It's being reported that Qingdao put forward the idea of joining the "City of Film" in 2015, then worked with other cities, including Hangzhou and Suzhou, to learn from their experiences.

Qingdao (Film) is picked to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. [File photo: VCG]

Changsha joins the network as a "City of Media Arts." Hunan's capital is the only Asian city to apply to become a "City of Media Arts."

Following other Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Wuhan has been named to the "City of Design" group after 8 years of work on its own "rebirth of the city" project, which has been confronted with serious challenges in terms of economic growth efficiency, ecological environment and cultural heritage protection.

Macao being added to the UCCN as a "City of Gastronomy" puts another symbolic tag on the city as one of two Special Administrative Regions in China.