2010 Friendship Competition Among Diplomats And Families on Knowing Chinese Culture

The 2010 Friendship Competition among Ambassadors and their wives on Knowing Chinese Culture sponsored by the CPAFFC started on March 29 and ended on November 30. About 200 foreign diplomatic envoys including 40 ambassadors from 90 countries took part.

The Friendship Competition consisted of three parts: the competition on tea culture held in Yongchuan of Chongqing from March 29 to May 30， the competition on Chinese tea ceremony in Shitai of Anhui Province from April 8 to November 30， and the competition on Chinese catering culture in Chengdu from September 6 to 26. After the launching ceremony， the participating envoys and their wives began to prepare for the competitions. They took part in training on tea ceremony， Chinese cuisine， etc. before competition. In this way they got acquainted with the local traditional culture as well as local customs and practices. The participants also visited the above three places where they enjoyed the unique local natural scenery， learned about folk cultures and studied Chinese cities and towns from various aspects and angles， thus gaining a comprehensive understanding of the real developing China.

On November 30， the closing ceremony was held in Beijing. Present were Jing Dunquan， Vice President of the CPAFFC; Hu Liansong， Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress; leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs， the Ministry of Culture， the Ministry of Agriculture， the Information Office of the State Council， and the National Tourism Administration， as well as over 150 diplomatic envoys (including 33 ambassadors to China) from the United States， the United Kingdom， Russia， Italy， Canada， France， Spain， Madagascar， Argentina， Indonesia， Chile， etc.

CPAFFC Vice President Jing Dunquan praised the event， saying that， it had made a breakthrough and innovation both in form and content and achieved distinctive and practical results. He hoped it would continue to uphold its aim of publicizing Chinese culture and facilitate foreign diplomatic envoys to travel to learn and understand Chinese culture through their personal experiences. He noted that such activities would help promote cultural exchanges between China and other countries.