19 Chinese and foreign cities to develop Silk Road tourism

Zhangye, Gansu: Nineteen Chinese and foreign cities along the Silk Road issued a declaration that they will jointly develop tourism along the ancient trade route.

The cities will promote tourist itineraries and explore tourism resources to rejuvenate the area and seek mutual benefit, according to the declaration, issued at the opening ceremony of the fourth Silk Road International Tourism Festival in Zhangye City of northwest China’s Gansu Province.

The 19 cities include some in China’s Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Taiwan, as well as in Belarus, Ukraine, Bahrain, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Nepal.

The initiative comes under China’s strategic vision of the Silk Road Economic Belt, a strengthened set of trade infrastructures along the ancient Silk Road.

China will cooperate with countries along the Silk Road to issue more tourist-friendly policies, set up promotion platforms and boost interconnection along the route, said Shao Qiwei, head of China’s National Tourism Administration.

The 19 cities will hold tourism expos and forums in 2014.

The Silk Road Economic Belt was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping last year. Strengthening economic ties along the route is seen as an opportunity for China to continue its opening up to the world and maintain economic advances.

The Silk Road connected China and Europe from around 100 B.C.Its history can be traced back to China’s Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618), when the port served as part of the Silk Road’s trade routes.

Around 2,000 years ago, caravans of camels carrying goods followed specific routes across Eurasia, crossing mountains and deserts, and linking the continent’s east and west through the trade of silk, jewelry, handicrafts, spices and seeds.

The Silk Road was a practical route for trade and cultural exchange, connecting China and European countries since around 100 BC, with Central Asia as the intermediate station. It became prosperous in China’s Tang Dynasty, when the capital of ancient China, Chang’an (today’s Xi’an), was opening up and hosted envoys from over 70 countries, including foreign government and religious delegations, merchants and overseas students.

The combined population of the belt’s countries is nearly 4 billion.The belt connects the Asia-Pacific economic circle in the east and the European economic circle in the west. Countries along the belt have great potential to cooperate in many fields. These include infrastructure, transportation, tourism, finance, energy, telecommunications, agriculture and manufacturing.

Now the journey’s eastern destination, the world’s second-largest economy, is devoting itself to rejuvenating the Silk Road and bringing new economic impetus to countries along the ancient route.

A “Silk Road Economic Belt” agreement was signed by 24 cities from eight countries along the Silk Road last November to boost multilateral cooperation, development and prosperity. – Xinhua / China Daily 

June 16, 2014