A special event celebrating the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was held Sunday in Ras Al Khaimah, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), drawing in scores of Chinese and local residents.
The event, titled "A Moon Moment to Remember," was organized by the Chinese Cultural Center and the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, featuring acrobatic and cultural performances by Chinese artists.
"I feel extremely happy and can feel the enthusiasm from the audience, which makes me feel like a little bird dancing in the air," said Wan Caihong, a performing artist.
The event not only stirred nostalgia among Chinese visitors, but also brought Chinese culture to local residents.
"We are bringing our Chinese autumn cultural affairs to be here to enjoy the beautiful moment together. We are doing a lot of work to promote inbound China tourism with the cooperation of local friends and colleagues so that we hope a lot of UAE residents will come to China, will visit China, will learn more about and experience our culture in China," said Liu Yang, director of China Cultural Center.
The show was preceded by an exhibition of China's traditional festival customs, where attendees could explore Chinese knot tying and to sample mooncakes, a festive desert during family reunions in China.
With over 400,000 Chinese living and working in the UAE, there is growing interest in cultural exchange between the two peoples.
"China has always been an important market for the UAE inbound tourism. We in Ras Al Khaimah, in the last couple of years, we've been focusing on this market, with the development that is taking place currently in the destination. China will play a major role in our growth and development. Year on year we've been experiencing 45 percent to 50 percent growth and we'll continue to do so with our partners and the activities that we are planning for in China," said Iyad Rasbey, vice president of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority.
Local interest was evident as many local residents came to explore China's Mid-Autumn Festival, expressing their curiosity about Chinese culture.
"I want to know about the culture of Chinese, and I want to learn about their country, what they do here, what the program is it. For sure I want to visit China, because I want to learn more about their culture, their food, what they do for a living," said Ali Fadel, an Emirati visitor.
Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in UAE amazes visitors
The 136th session of the China Import and Export Fair, popularly known as the Canton Fair, kicked off on Tuesday in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province in south China, with over 30,000 enterprises from both home and abroad showcasing some 1.15 million new products.
Featuring a digital and green future of global trade, this year's Canton Fair has taken every effort to improve the quality of the exhibition, with a number of new products, new technologies and new forms of business to be highlighted.
The fair will witness nearly 4,600 companies from home and abroad holding their exhibitions for the first time. More than 8,000 leading Chinese startups and major players in the domestic high-tech and manufacturing sectors are attending the event, up over 40 percent year on year.
"The number of digital intelligent products has soared by more than three times over the previous session, and that of green and low-carbon products has increased by 130 percent over the last edition. Through the Canton Fair, we can see that Chinese products and Chinese brands have stepped onto a new stage of high-quality development," said Song Wencan, deputy director of the Secretariat of the Canton Fair.
The fair will be held in three phases between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4 and and includes 55 exhibition areas covering 1.55 million square meters.
A new energy enterprise from Jiangsu Province in east China made debut at the exhibition, providing a new solution to solve the water and electricity problems on an island by adopting wind and solar energy systems.
"This technology has been fully demonstrated in eight countries such as the Maldives, Brazil and Oman. And we also hope to promote our services and our technology to the world through the Canton Fair," said Zhu Jiaqi, an exhibitor.
In addition, many mechanical equipment and automated production lines are being unveiled at the fair.
A Chengdu-based company is exhibiting its self-developed packaging production line to provide solutions for the whole process from hardware to software.
"If the factory uses our production line, it can help save at least half of the labor coast. Compared with the European and American equipment, our price is one third of theirs. We hope to promote the Chinese equipment to the world via the Canton Fair. And of course, we also hope to get more orders at the Canton Fair," said Zhu Shilin, another exhibitor.
The 136th Canton Fair continues to set up exhibition areas for imported products in three phases, attracting 730 companies from 49 countries and regions to participate.
Among those companies is a South Korean exhibitor, who has had a relationship with the Canton Fair for about two decades.
"We started off as a small booth for like 20 years ago, I think. But now our booth has grown. We have about four booths, I believe. We are at the center of the place. Canton fair was a very good opportunity for us to meet new clients around the world. It was for us and it always will be in the future, I believe," said Kim Sang-hyun, head of the Overseas Sales Department of Cuckoo Electronics Co., Ltd., a home appliance maker headquartered in Yangsan, South Korea.
136th Canton Fair gathers over 30,000 enterprises offline to showcase 1.15 mln new products
