Abstract: the selection and construction of modern shipping industry system directly determines the overall competitiveness of international shipping center. Although shipping industry’s connotation and boundary exists objectively, the shipping industry system of various international shipping center is unique in reality. Therefore, it is necessary to study whether there is commonness behind personality, in order to provide a universal shipping industry selection framework for those cities that committed to become international shipping center. Based on the analysis of famous international shipping center, we find industry convergence and stage matching are the common features of shipping industry selection, Shipping urbanization and urban shipping is the inner motive force of t shipping industry development, according to this thought, a shipping industry selection model for growing international shipping center is established，then take Guangzhou as an example for empirical analysis.