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Cultural Tours Bridge China and the World

China Today by LIAO XIAOCHUN & WANG MINGHUA, February 8, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Tourism Commission of Hangzhou City launched a publicity campaign “Recall Hangzhou, Feel China” in December 2016, aimed at promoting Hangzhou in Southeast Asia. The work team especially organized for the project has traveled to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, among which Thailand and Singapore are two countries along the Maritime Silk Road. 

During the 10 days it spent in these Southeast Asian countries the publicity team interviewed influential figures in the politics, business, and tourism fields, asking them to share their impressions and stories of Hangzhou. The exchanges are to be adapted into TV programs and broadcast in those countries with the aim of promoting Hangzhou’s superior tourism resources. The interviewees may thus be considered as promotional ambassadors who introduce Hangzhou’s singular charms to the world. 

 The vast expanse of lotuses off the shores of the West Lake is one of its 10 famous scenic spots. 

The work team visited and interviewed many distinguished government officials and personages on its tour of Southeast Asian countries, including Chen Jiang, cultural counselor of Chinese Embassy in the Kingdom of Thailand; Lan Suhong, director of China Cultural Center Bangkok office; Cai Yipi, president and Qian Feng, vice president of Thailand and China Artists Association; Lin Xu, chairman of the Cultural Federation between Thailand and China; Hu Yishan, president of Fellowship between Malaysia and China Association in Sabah; Datuk Siew Ka Wei, chairman, and Datuk Seri Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, director general of Tourism Malaysia Promotion Board; Xiao Jianghua, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Singapore; Cai Yiyu, lifetime professor of Nanyang Technological University; Zhou Zhaocheng, vice president of Singapore Press Holdings in Emerging Markets; Zhou Bin, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Indonesia; Lee Zhuohui, editor-in-chief of the Indonesia-based Yinhua Daily; Sun Hao, social and cultural counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in China; and Taufik Nurhidayat, deputy director of the International Marketing Office of the Ministry of Tourism, the Republic of Indonesia. 

All lavished praise on Hangzhou for its natural scenery, the dramatic changes in its urban landscape, and the city’s cultural heritage and rapid contemporary development. Each said that every trip they made to Hangzhou revealed something new. Datuk Siew Ka Wei observed that Hangzhou perfectly blends history and modernity, and is a must-see city in China. He also pointed out that Southeast Asian countries are the first choice for many Chinese tourists taking outbound trips, and that Hangzhou has pioneered development of the new “Internet + tourism” model in China. He hopes that Hangzhou and Southeast Asian countries will deepen their tourism and cultural exchanges and so promote development of one another’s cultural tourism sectors. 

With the support of top-level departments, such as the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Culture, and through coordination and arrangements of the Embassy of China in the Kingdom of Thailand and China Cultural Center (Bangkok), a forum will be held on February 17, 2017 at the China Cultural Center’s Bangkok office. Foreign and domestic guests and representatives in the cultural, tourism, and media sectors will be invited to discuss cooperative opportunities for common development that will strengthen the cultural bond between China and countries along the Belt and Road. 

After completion of the Hangzhou activity, a series of publicity endeavors for other cities, such as Xi’an, Fuzhou, and Guiyang, will be launched with the joint efforts of both domestic and foreign media, to promote these cities throughout the world.    

Those activities will give an authentic presentation of cities in China, and are also conducive to promoting pragmatic cooperation between China and foreign countries and encouraging innovative cooperation models. These projects give Chinese and foreign media workers the chance to learn from one another, and so further facilitate their exchanges and cooperation.  

LIAO XIAOCHUN is secretary-general of the organizing committee of “Recall Hangzhou, Feel China” campaign.

WANG MINGHUA is member of the Editorial Board of Hangzhou Culture, Radio, and Television Group.