One day, the mayor of Tel Aviv, Israel's second-largest city, leaves his office at night and gives the keys as usual to his assistant.

The assistant sneaks in, arranges the office like a bar and invites a group of friends to sing and dance until dawn.

Then they hastily straighten out the office before the mayor arrives the next morning.

No, this didn't actually happen, it's an ad for the city of Tel Aviv.

"We spent $2,000 on the video, and then we sent it to Facebook. So many people have watched it that we don't need other advertisements to promote our city," said Asaf Zamir, deputy mayor of Tel Aviv, at the Beijing Forum on Sustainable Development of Cities on Thursday.

"That is how we presented our city, more advanced and more edgy," he said.

The purpose of the forum was for mayors from different countries to discuss the government's role in exploring their cultural heritage.

"Every city has its own historical context, which the government should follow and develop," said Zhang Miao, deputy director of the publicity department of Beijing Party committee.

"With Beijing's thousands of years' history, now one of the major tasks we are facing is how to use our heritage, and we hope for advice from this forum," Zhang said.

"We are planning to support a group of high-quality original cultural products, to help Beijing become a globally influential cultural center," said Gou Zhongwen, deputy mayor of Beijing.

According to the Beijing Morning Post, the city has invested 4.55 billion yuan ($700 million) in the past five years in developing public culture and has built 6,669 cultural structures including libraries.

"Beijing and London face common situations, like protection of historic buildings, and street entertainers," said Liu Tongbo, chief representative in China of the Greater London Authority.

"The London government organizes a talent competition for street entertainers, so that we can organize them," Liu said.

"Like every international metropolis, Beijing has a great number of migrants, either from other cities in China or other countries.

"Maybe in the future Beijing will devise a way, through restrictions or preferential policies, to attract more talent to work and live here, and to attract more tourism."

chengyingqi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/29/2012 page4)