Tourism Expands the State of Mind, and Makes the World Smaller

On the morning of April 25, the Thematic Forum on People-to-People Connectivity of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation kicked off at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. With the theme of “Jointly promote the connection of the people, jointly talk about people’s livelihood cooperation, and jointly create a better life”, the thematic forum consisted of four parts: keynote speeches and honored guest speeches, representative speeches, story sharing, and action project launching. More than 130 foreign guests from 61 countries of five continents, including representatives of foreign political parties, government leaders, heads of international agencies and others, interacted with one another and exchanged views on folk communication, public opinion communication and people’s livelihood cooperation.

At the thematic forum, people from different countries and industries along the “Belt and Road” route gathered and shared their moving stories during the “Belt and Road” construction process. Representing the global tourism industry and travelers, the Colombian employee Laura Chavarro from WTCF shared the cooperation stories between China and Latin America. Laura recounted her work experience and feelings at WTCF, starting with the Latin American proverb “A real friend can reach your heart from the other side of the world”, which had once been quoted by China’s General Secretary Xi Jinping on his visit to Latin America in 2016. Under the “Belt and Road” background, she introduced the important function of WTCF in connecting the world and pushing forward cooperation. She hopes that the Belt and Road Initiative will render the hearts of the people from different nations to connect, communicate and blend, further exchange development experience and share development results, and boost the building of a community of destiny for mankind.

After the forum, Laura received an interview from People’s Daily. She said that, being able to tell stories that are related to the development of the tourism industry at the Thematic Forum on People-to-People Connectivity, share feelings on the tourism cooperation between Latin America and WTCF, and express the good friendship between Latin Americans and Chinese tourists during the “Belt and Road” construction process is an unforgettable experience in her whole life. She hopes that, through her hard work, China and the countries along the “Belt and Road” route can further understand the diverse cultures of each other, learn development experience from each other, and jointly build and jointly share development results.

Song Tao, head of the International Department, Central Committee of CPC, delivered a speech at the forum, and expressed that the people-to-people connectivity is the deepest, longest, and most basic interconnection during the “Belt and Road” construction process. He hopes that, with a more positive attitude, different parities work to build the bridge of people-to-people connectivity, pave the road that connects people’s hearts and souls, and lay a solid foundation for the close relations between the people, and push forward the “Belt and Road” construction to realizing bigger achievements, bearing more fruits, bringing welfare to more people, and benefiting the whole world. Those who delivered speeches respectively include Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, Leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front and President of Mozambique; Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbian Progressive Party and President of Serbia; Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of Myanmar, and others.

In addition, the “Silk Road Family” was also launched, which is committed to promoting the folk organizations of the Belt and Road nations to establish 500 pairs of cooperation partner relationships in the coming two years, and starting 200 people’s livelihood projects in the participating developing countries, so as to lay a solid folk foundation for the further promotion of the “Belt and Road” construction.