The fourth-largest industrial city has set its sights on a new track.

According to reports from China News Service and China Water Transport News, Foshan Maritime Safety Administration recently publicly released the "Recommended Route Guide Map for Yachts on Xijiang River in Foshan" and "Safety Guidelines for Yacht Navigation in Foshan Waters" (hereinafter referred to as "One Map and One Guideline"). This is the first inland river yacht navigation guide map in Guangdong Province, which will support the implementation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Yacht Free Travel policy and provide authoritative operational basis for the safe, convenient and standardized operation of yachts in Foshan waters.

As a high-end form of waterfront leisure industry, the yacht economy is the core carrier to activate the economic vitality of Foshan's "Two-Rivers Surrounding" waterfront area. At present, the navigation on the Foshan section of Xijiang River is busy, and there is a lack of intuitive, systematic and authoritative operational guidelines for yacht navigation safety management and standardized development of the industry. In recent years, Foshan Maritime Safety Administration has continuously improved the yacht service chain from infrastructure supporting, club operation to the introduction of "20 Measures to Support the Development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Yacht Free Travel in Foshan". The implementation of the "One Map and One Guideline" has further cleared the "last nautical mile" for yacht free travel.

The marine economy is rapidly becoming a "blue engine" driving economic growth.

Among them, the yacht industry covers many fields such as high-end manufacturing, cultural tourism consumption, and scientific and technological innovation, and is regarded as a potential industry with strong industrial driving force and consumption traction.

A frequently compared data shows that China's car ownership has exceeded that of the United States, but the United States has 13 million yachts, while China only has 12,000 yachts.

Earlier this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Points in Service Consumption", the first item of which clearly puts forward "promoting the high-quality development of yacht consumption".

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Transport also disclosed that "Yachts, which were previously regarded as high-consumption items, are evolving towards the stage of mass consumption and large-scale development. Our Ministry will seize this development trend and study and formulate a number of measures to expand yacht consumption."

As a major province with marine economy, Guangdong is adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, with rivers connecting to the sea. It is the first province in China to propose the development of the yacht industry, and also the core position of yacht consumption in the country.

In 2024, the "Action Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Yacht Industry in Guangdong Province (2024-2027)" proposed that by 2027, the number of yacht berths (including docking points) shall be no less than 2500, the number of registered yachts in the province shall reach more than 4000, and the scale of the yacht and related industries shall exceed 100 billion yuan.

In May this year, the State Council approved the implementation of the policy of exemption from guarantee and temporary nationality certificate registration for Hong Kong and Macao yachts in the 9 mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the yacht free travel has entered the stage of full implementation.

With so many favorable policies, Foshan, the "Fourth Largest Industrial City in China", is taking the development of the yacht industry as an important fulcrum to leverage the marine economy and activate inland river resources.

Foshan is a water town in Lingnan area, with Xijiang River, Beijiang River and their tributaries running through the whole territory, rich in waterway and river resources, and has natural conditions for developing the yacht industry.

More importantly, Foshan is at a critical stage of transforming old and new growth drivers and optimizing and upgrading its industrial structure. Yachts are called "mansions floating on the water" — developing the yacht industry is expected to activate Foshan's traditional advantageous industries such as smart home, high-end building materials and hardware products, and channel their production capacity into a new track with high added value.

To this end, Foshan has specially issued the "Action Plan for the High-Quality Development of Foshan's Yacht Industry (2025-2027)" to accelerate the layout of yacht industry projects and strive to build a new highland for the development of the yacht industry.

In November last year, at the on-site meeting for the high-quality development of the yacht industry around the two rivers in Foshan, Xijiang International Yacht Exhibition Center, the first large-scale inland river yacht pier in Guangdong Province, was officially unveiled.

At the event, the leading official of the Foshan Municipal Party Committee specially pointed out that Foshan has strong market demand, solid industrial foundation, unique ecological endowment and overlapping policy dividends, so the development of the yacht industry has unprecedented opportunities and unlimited potential. Foshan should adhere to the combination of overall planning and facility optimization, and implement the yacht industrial chain upgrading project.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "City Evolution", author: Liu Yanmei, published with authorization from 36Kr.