International Exchanges
The new pattern expands the vast space for exchanges and cooperation, highlighting Shaanxi's advantage of opening to the outside world. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, Shaanxi has hosted more than 40 state guests, including the presidents of Germany, Italy, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, South Korea and Guinea, kings of the Netherlands and Cambodia as well as the premiers of India, Nepal and New Zealand, among others. It has become an important stage for showcasing Chinese civilization and national spirit to the world.
With high-level exchanges as the lead, mutually beneficial cooperation projects as link, deepening understanding and boosting mutual trust as cornerstone, Shaanxi has advanced the construction of sister cities as cooperation and sister cities help each other forward. So far, Shaanxi has established friendly ties with 84 cities in 33 countries.
At the same time, the Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment & Trade Forum for Cooperation Between East & West China, the Euro-Asia Economic Forum, the Silk Road International Arts Festival, China Yangling Agricultural Hitech Fair (CAF), Shaanxi-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Economic Cooperation Week, World Cultural and Tourism Forum, Global Hard & Core Technology Conference, and many other more high-level conferences, forums, activities are held in Shaanxi, enabling it a platform for cultural exchange and economic and trade cooperation with countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt.
In June 2019, the "Wheel of Friendship and Beauty of World"—Crested Ibis Culture Exhibition, planned and organized by Shaanxi province, was successfully held in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition received warm welcome and wide praise from all walks of life in Japan and attracted great attention from Chinese and foreign media. During the G20 summit, an upsurge of caring for crested ibis and understanding Shaanxi was set off.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2015, during his inspection to Shaanxi, President Xi Jinping said: “The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, the terracotta warriors and horses, the Yan'an pagoda, the Qinling Mountains and the Huashan Mountains etc. are the spiritual and natural indications of the Chinese civilization, revolution and geography.”
Located at Mount Beiqiao to the north of Huangling County of Yan'an, the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is the tomb of Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, the ancestor of the Chinese nation. The mausoleum is included in the First National Key Cultural Protection Sites as the No. 1 Ancient Tomb by the State Council, and is known as the “Number One Mausoleum under the Heaven” and “China's No. 1 Mausoleum”.
The supreme and unique mausoleum, as a national sacred land for Chinese people to inherit and promote Chinese culture, has been emphasized and protected in all dynasties. It also houses a cypress forest of over 80,000 trees including the cypress planted by the Yellow Emperor himself, as well as numerous steles and inscriptions by celebrities and other important cultural relics. In August 2014, the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was inscribed on the World Cultural Heritage nomination list.
Currently, Shaanxi is accelerating the construction of the National Cultural Park of Mausoleum of Yellow Emperor to forge a soul land of the Chinese nation and enable the spiritual project of Chinese nation, the root tracing project of Chinese people, the traditional culture promotion project and the world-oriented civilization dissemination project to exhibit the Yellow Emperor culture and highlight the national spirit.