A chance here to exhibit your photos at the Royal Palace

There is a road
where people made arduous efforts throughout more than a thousand years.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian expanded to the Western Regions
a commercial road where silk was traded
from Chang’an, the capital of Han Dynasty, passing Hexi Corridor,
crossing Pamirs Plateau, known as Congling in ancient time,
and heading up to the Central Asia and in the end to the Mediterranean Sea.

There is a road
Where people braved the wind and the waves, traveling a thousand miles,
to open up in stormy waters 2000 years ago.
Merchant ships departed from the coastal areas in the south-east of China,
crossed the Strait of Malacca and Indian Ocean to enter the Red Sea,
and finally reached East Africa and Europe.

(Quanzhou, the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road)

Over the ages,
‘envoys and merchants came and went without an end,
and a countless number of merchant ships called at ports.’
Traveling merchants and envoys, scholars and craftsmen,
boat trackers and sailors, pilgrims and artists,
had all written down touching stories.

‘the Belt and Road’
is always an interaction between history and reality.

More than a thousand years ago, a fleet of camels trekked and
tramped out a trading passage between China and the West.
Today, a fleet of iron camels known as Sino-Euro Trains
is galloping on the New Silk Road.

Liu Guoying is still working overtime at 1:00 early in the morning,
who has to make sure that more than 50 containers
should be loaded up correctly and accurately to a Sino-Euro Train.
Those who work hard for Sino-Euro Trains
are the ‘new’ camel caravaneers on the Belt and Road.

The Four Great Inventions once moved forward to the world via the Silk Road.
Arabian astronomy was brought into China via here too.
Today, the same story is being written on this road
where knowledge, technology and concepts are mixed and sparkle.

Bright Chyundu from Zambia
created an e-payment company after studying in China,
so that the Zambians are provided with an Alipay-like service, and
can pay for power and shop for the new Four Great Inventions of China via telephone, after which
they set out again along the Belt and Road to share the new outcome worldwide.

In the last years of Tang Dynasty, a kind of so-called Champa rice was introduced into Fujian Province via the Maritime Silk Road.
And Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty gave orders to popularize such Champa rice.
Since then, ‘a good harvest in Suzhou and Huzhou only is abundant enough to feed the people all over the country.’

A thousand years later, a Chinese man named Xu Guowu
came to Laos with the delegation of the Belt and Road.
He brought ‘Chinese Standard’ here
to improve Champa rice of more than 2,000 hectares.
A small grain of rice sets out from history and leads to a more beautiful future.

(Xu Guowu (First from the right) and Dr. Pudale, LaotianYuan Longping, are discussing in an agricultural industrial park developed by a Chinese enterprise.)

The Belt and Roadconnects to history on one end and points to the future on the other,
while connecting to China on one end and to the world on the other.
Stories happening on the Belt and Road
are showing quicker and quicker development and more and more updated technology.
However, the spirit of peaceful co-existence, mutual benefits and two-win cooperation has been continuing for a thousand years without ever changes.