The Award Ceremony of Tasting in Shinan Delicacies List bestows honors on local catering enterprises on April 18. [Photo/WeChat account: qdweishinan]

As the Chinese saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people and Shinan district – in Qingdao city in East China's Shandong province – is currently garnering the attention of foodies.

In a bid to boost the district's catering industry and build up the reputation of its food brands, on April 16 the second council of the fourth session of the Shinan District Catering Association and the Award Ceremony of Tasting in the Shinan Delicacies List was held, according to local media reports.

The awards ceremony was the culmination of a competition which was launched on Dec 12 last year.

It was covered by a series of online and offline platforms – including the Alibaba Double 12 Super Fans Festival – aiming to expand the influence of Qingdao's local delicacies and increase spending on food and restaurants in the district.

Statistics showed that during the activity, local company broadcasts attracted over 252,000 online views and the number of merchandise transactions topped 3,000 – with celebrity Li Jiaqi's Double 12 livestreaming broadcast and online marketing of commodities from a Qingdao live broadcast room being viewed an astonishing 20 million-plus times.

Koubei – Alibaba Group's local services company – reported that the value of associated online transactions was worth 11.22 million yuan ($1.72 million), with the number of individual transactions hitting 118,000.