Feature: Shanghai Week kicks off at Expo Milano

Cooperation events attended by Chinese and Western specialists but also a variety of art performances will animate the Milan world exposition for five days starting from Tuesday, when the Shanghai Week kicked off here at the site.

"The Shanghai Week will focus on the theme 'Agriculture supports the city, the city makes agriculture more effective,'" Li Yiping, Secretary General of the Shanghai Municipal Government, said in his address to the opening ceremony.

Li wished that the intense program will contribute to deepen bilateral knowledge and collaboration especially in the sectors related to the Expo's theme dedicated to sustainable agriculture and healthy food for all.

"The presence of the Shanghai delegation is of utmost importance for us today," Stefano Gatti, General Manager Participants and Director General Pavilion of Italy at Expo Milano 2015, said.

"My team was at the Shanghai Expo 2010, which was one of the most successful expos of history, and I can say that we learnt a lot from the experience of collaboration we had with the Chinese world exposition," he said.

"Milan and Shanghai have enjoyed deep relations for a very long time, they are twin cities. Milan is for Italy what Shanghai is for China, they are not capital cities but they are very vibrant and modern, so we feel a lot of resemblance," Gatti pointed out.

"The relations between Italy and China are taking off. We are catching up some lost time and this is the best way to do it," Consul General of Italy in Shanghai Stefano Beltrame said, adding that the original Silk Road was connecting China with Italy.

"A part of my heart is Chinese," renowned Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta told Xinhua as a parade of as many as 500 models walked the runway wearing traditional Chinese women's dress Qipao on the first day of the Shanghai Week.

"Today it is a fantastic day. I think Qipao is one of the most feminine dresses in the world. You feel very elegant and at the same time it is very sexy, and it is something that is a tradition," Cucinotta, who was wearing herself a Qipao for the occasion, went on saying. "You have to respect and keep the tradition because it represents who you are and where you come from," she stressed.

"I have so many friends in China. I have been working there for eight years so I have become a little bit Chinese inside, and I proud to be here and celebrate with my Chinese friends," she said a day after the China National Day was also celebrated at the Expo Milano 2015.

"Shanghai is a fresh market for the textile brands. With China's economic development, the quality of life of citizens is improving and also the quality of goods," Tong Jisheng, Chairman of Shangtex Holding Co, a major Shanghai-based textile manufacturer, told Xinhua.

"We have brought to the Milan Expo some of the most innovative products," he said, stressing the will of vibrant city Shanghai to further boost collaboration with Milan and the Western world. Shanghai hosted the 2010 world exposition, before passing the baton to Milan, he noted.

Therefore Shanghai, the fashion capital of China, has a huge potential of win-win cooperation with non-Chinese companies in the textile sector, Tong went on saying. "I believe the fashion of the future could be a combination of Western and Asian ingredients," he added.

"I can say that I know China very little, but I find these musics and colors very fascinating," a visitor, Susanna Cardamuro, said while watching the Qipao parade with her brother. Endit