Urban External Image Communication Research

City is the center of contemporary society, while city image means a comprehensive impression of a city to public, and an important factor of city's competitiveness. City image could be sub-divided into city's visual image, history & culture image, economic image, government image and citizen image. Showing good city image to foreign countries may improve city's fame and provide good opinion surroundings for the city, thus being significant to city's development. The city image's communication, in which governments plays leading role and private sectors participate, requires joint endeavor of television, internet, flat media and foreign-related culture festivals. The survey of "Nanjing in Foreigners' Mind" represents Nanjing's city image facts now. In cross-culture city image communication the differences on Chinese and western culture, on Chinese and western local authority and on language are main factors giving influences to the process. With the purpose of achieving good results of cross-culture city image communication the author raises five major principles: combination of individual and universal values; less political and more humane features; true, precise and fast, receiver understanding, plain and effective. Finally, based on survey results and communication theories, the author also proposes strategies of improving Nanjing's cross-culture city image communication.