” Visit China Year 2016 ” kicks off in India
Beijing : President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China sent congratulatory messages to the opening ceremony of “Visit China Year” held on January 14 in New Delhi, India.
Li Jinzao, chairman of CNTA read out the letter of President Xi, and delivered his own remarks. Mahesh Sharma, the Culture Minister of India and Le Yucheng, Chinese Ambassador to India also addressed the ceremony.The ceremony was chaired by Li Shihong, vice chairman of CNTA.
In his message, President Xijinping, on behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, congratulated the opening ceremony of “Visit China Year”, extended cordial greetings to the friendly Indian people, and sincerely thanked all Indian friends that have supported and assisted the “Visit China Year” events.
He said, Chinese people and Indian people had long-standing and well-established friendship. In the past centuries, with exchanges and mutual learning, they set a successful example for cross-cultural exchanges and played an important role in the progress of human civilization. China and India had prominent complementary advantages and thus large cooperation potential. The two countries could carry forward traditional friendship, enhance win-win cooperation and expand cultural exchanges, so as to further contribute to world peace and development.
President Xi Jinping pointed out that he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached a consensus on holding “Visit China Year” and “Visit India Year” when he visited India in 2014. He hoped that the two sides could build on the achieved progress and take the opportunity of “Visit China Year” in India to expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and thus inject more energy into the closer development partnership between China and India.
In his remarks, Li Jinzao said that, the greetings of President Xi Jinping showed his care for China-India tourism exchanges and embodies his hope to enhance practical cooperation and further friendship between peoples. Tourism was acting as a special bond for China and India’s friendly communication. China, now with 48 World Heritage sites, had many resources famous for long history, ancient culture and profound contents. In 2015, about 900 thousand two-way visits were made between China and India, showing large potential and opportunities for future development. He believed that the “Visit India Year” and “Visit China Year” would bring a new era of more than one million two-way visits and make China-India closer development partnership more vigorous.
Mahesh Sharma extended warm congratulations on the opening of “Visit China Year”. He said, the two countries were playing a due important role in the international arena; the tourism cooperation were essential for enhanced mutual understanding, communication and cooperation between China and India. He was happy to attend the opening ceremony of “Visit India Year” held in last February in Beijing during his visit to China, and welcomed the e-visa for Chinese tourists of India. He believed that these would have positive influences on the tourism cooperation of the two countries. He wished “Visit China Year” a success in promoting culture exchanges between China and India.
Le Yucheng said in his speech that tourism was conducive to promoting culture exchanges, enhancing mutual understanding and making people feel closer. Now that more Chinese people chose to travel abroad, India, as a friendly neighbour and an ancient civilization, would become a popular destination. As the 2015 “Visit India Year” was a great success in China, he believed that the “Visit China Year” in India could show the beautiful China with agreeable landscape and profound culture to Indian friends and attract them to discover, feel and understand China.
After the opening ceremony, Li Jinzao, Mahesh Sharma and Le Yucheng, together with Chinese and Indian guests, watched “The Seventh Fairy Maiden”, a classic opera of Anhui, China. The superb performance, gorgeous costumes, graceful singing and aesthetic artistic expression attracted warm applauses.
Source: cnta.gov.cn
