Giant Panda in Hand with Koala - Chengdu and Australia Promote Bilateral Cooperation on Tourism and Trade

CHENGDU, China, June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 18, local time of Australia, the inauguration ceremony of "2017 China-Australia Tourism Year - Theme Activity Day of Chengdu City" was held at Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia. Through setting up three theme activities including tourist route experience hall, intangible cultural heritage hall and giant panda public art exhibition, Chengdu fully showcased its rich tourism resources and diversified intangible heritage culture to Australians and expanded its popularity and influence in Australia.

At that day, the field of Chengdu City Theme Activity Day was crowded and tourists visited painting panda art exhibition, panda photo exhibition and human-panda interaction area with great joy. More than 20 painting-art pandas attracted tourists to stop to take photos. CEO Peter Binchman of Tourism Promotion Bureau of the State of Victoria expressed that by taking the opportunity of "China-Australia Tourism Year" and the opening of direct flight, this activity will play a positive role in the tourism cooperation and culture exchange between Chengdu and Melbourne, Sichuan Province and the State of Victoria, and even the whole China and Australia.

As a matter of fact, Sichuan Province and the State of Victoria, Chengdu and Melbourne have always had good communication and exchange. In February 2013, Sichuan Airlines opened the flight route directly from Chengdu to Melbourne; in October 2013, the government of the State of Victoria set up its trade and investment representative office in Chengdu, and the cooperation between the two cities in terms of tourism, economy and trade has been accelerating step by step; in September 2016, the State of Victoria and Sichuan established the relationship of friendly provinces and states, and Governor Daniel Andrew of the State of Victoria came to Chengdu at this time and expressed his "affection" for Chengdu, "I am so proud to come to Chengdu. It is a leading city in China."

Luo Qiang, Deputy Secretary and Vice Mayor of Chengdu Municipality, said that the exchange and cooperation between Chengdu and Melbourne has become increasingly close in recent years and via establishing the relationship of economic and trade cooperative partners, both sides would go on to build and expand the exchange platform in terms of livability, economy and trade, tourism, higher education, innovation and entrepreneurship, electronic information and communication technology so as to promote a complementary and win-win relationship.

Liu Le, member of the Melbourne City Council, expressed that the tourism resources between China and Australia are highly complementary. The number of bilateral visitors is predicted to create new high again. He expected to further enhance bilateral exchange foundation and raise the bilateral cooperation level via this activity so as to gain more beneficial cooperation in the fields of tourism, economy and trade, and education.

Chengdu is a beautiful city with historical charm and modern civilization while Melbourne has long enjoyed the good reputation of cultural city in the Southern Hemisphere. With the background of "China-Australia Tourism Year", Chengdu and cities of Australia will strengthen exchanges and perform practical cooperation in more and deeper levels to create a new chapter of Chengdu's diplomacy.

During this visit, Mr. Luo Qiang also signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Education Cooperation between Chengdu and the State of Victoria, which means that in the future, university students in Chengdu will hopefully study in the State of Victoria with scholarship.

SOURCE Chengdu Municipal Government