Five cities have been honored in southern China for their innovative development . Among 170 entries, Boston; the Danish capital, Copenhagen; Songpa-gu in South Korea; Egypt's Qalyubaya; and the Bolivian capital, La Paz were chosen for their projects that focused on themes such as budgeting, climate change, solar power usage and waste management.

The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation, or simply The Guangzhou Award, was launched in 2012 and has been held every other year since then. During the four-day event, the city of Guangzhou also signed memorandums with the city of Bristol, in south-west England, and the Italian city of Genoa to enhance cooperation in smart city construction, tourism and ports.

“The award can work as a database, gathering urban project plans and providing them for free to all urban policy makers, researchers and executors. So the Guangzhou Award is not a regional one, but more of a global award,” said Liu Baochun, director general of Foreign Affairs Office of Guangzhou Government.

“We exchange experience not only the good ones, but also the difficult ones, the bad ones, which didn’t succeed. So the others can improve, so we learn enormously from each other,” said Beate Weber-Schuerholz, co-chair of Guangzhou Award Jury.