The city has also become a rotating host of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos Forum.
Zhang's achievements in Tianjin owed much to the experience he amassed while working in both Guangdong and Shandong.
As a provincial leader handling economic issues, he spent more than 10 years in Guangdong and for years served concurrently as Party chief of Shenzhen, the showcase of China's reform, witnessing how new economic policies transformed the province and the city.