A group of expats from ten countries, respectively Russia, France, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, East Timor, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco,Yemen, and the Republic of Congo, paid a visit to Jiangsu’s Huai’an City from Oct 19 to 20.
Co-hosted by Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu Province, Xinhua Daily and the Publicity Department of Huai’an Municipal Party Committee, the activity, taking the name of “Charming Huai'an and Beautiful Grand Canal in Expats' View”, was organized by Jiangsu Provincial Publicity Education Center of Environment Protection, Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Environmental Science, as well as Departments of Think Tank, Omnimedia Center for Int’l Communicaiton and the Huai’an Branch of Xinhua Daily.
The exploring activity aims to give a full display of the profound history of Huai’an City, the rich canal culture and the great ecological development here. During the two-day trip, expats visited most of the iconic cultural places in Huai’an, including Hexia Ancient Town, the Former Residence of Wu Cheng’en, the Water Transport Museum and the first-ever amusement park themed on “Journey to the West”.
Kowalczyk Mathis from France has just come to China for two months, and he is very interested in Chinese culture. “I had seen China in magazines and movies. I had an picture in my mind about the gardens and the ancient architecture. Through this trip, it feels like all my imagination coming true.” Kowalczyk immediately shared some of the interesting moments during the trip on social media.
Situated on the bank of the Grand Canal, Huai’an was one of the most important traffic hubs in ancient China. In the Water Transport Museum, Isac Pereira from East Timor was amazed by the intelligence of the diligent Chinese people and those delicate ship models. "It was brilliant to come up with the idea of building the canal to solve the transportation from South to North.” Having been in Jiangsu for over eight years, Isac notices that cities in Jiangsu have well integrated the old and the new, “you can feel both the culture of thousands of years and the vibes of modern development in the new era."
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, over the past 10 years, Belt and Road cooperation has progressed from "sketching the outline" to "filling in the details," and blueprints have been turned into real projects. Huai’an, with its unique geographical importance, has also played an active role in Jiangsu’s strive for deeper cooperation with the Belt and Road countries. "We can tell from so many perspectives that the initiative has benefited many countries and their people," said Irina Ossipova from Kazakhstan, the first country to confirm its participation in the Belt and Road Initiative.
“I will sure to share my experience in Huai’an and Jiangsu to my friends and other internationals. More people in the world should know how amazing this country is.” Mark Rubtsov from Russia expressed that he was very happy to promote the city and its culture.
At the end of the activity, the expats were given the honorary title of “City Promotion Ambassador” for Huai’an, Jiangsu and China. "It's a great honor, and we are all glad to make a contribution to the cultural exchanges between China and the world," said Nomena from Madagascar.
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