China's cultural tourism highlighted, adored in Vietnam

"If these beautiful products are for sale, I will buy them immediately," a Vietnamese young man told Xinhua on Monday, pointing his hand to a USB drive in the form of a Guangxi bronze drum and then a smartphone cover with images of a dragon and a phoenix.

Standing next to him, a Vietnamese middle-aged woman was gazing at semi-precious stones in different shapes and colors which were twinkling inside. She touched a crystal stone, which looks like quartz, overturned it and exclaimed with surprise: "There is a battery-powered small lamp inside it."

The man and the woman were among visitors to an exhibition and a seminar on cultural industry and tourism promotion, held at the National Library of Vietnam in Vietnam's capital Hanoi by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam.

"In recent years, culture and tourism cooperation between China and Vietnam has been broadened and deepened… China has remained Vietnam's biggest source of foreign visitors for over 10 years," Li Qun, Chinese vice minister of culture and tourism, said at opening ceremony of the exhibition and the seminar on Monday.

The two sides have engaged in comprehensive exchanges and cooperation in such spheres as cultural industry, human resource training, cultural heritage and tourism, creating new impetus for the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, he stated, noting that the exhibition and seminar are part of the China Tourism and Culture Week held around the world.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has signed memorandums of understanding on tourism cooperation with many Chinese cities and provinces, including Sichuan, Chengdu and Zhejiang, Trinh Thi Thuy, Vietnamese vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, said at the opening ceremony of the seminar and the exhibition which is displaying over 200 cultural and creative products made by Chinese museums.

The organization of the exhibition and the seminar is a manifestation of fine culture exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, she said.

The exhibition consists of four sections themed ethnic culture, municipal culture, historical culture and landscape culture. The cultural and creative products on display, all eye-catching and useful, have been designed and created by five Chinese museums in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The Vietnamese young man, Hoang Hai, a student at the Hanoi University of Culture, told Xinhua that only when attending this exhibition did he realize that ancient bronze drums in Vietnam and Guangxi look fairly alike and that indicates similarity between Vietnamese and Chinese culture.

"And what I admire more is that employees of museums in Guangxi have creatively used patterns of ancient bronze drums such as flying birds and the sun to make impressive modern products including USB drives and tape measures," Hai said.

The middle-aged woman, who identified herself as a loyal fan of the National Library of Vietnam, said through objects on display at the exhibition she understands that landscapes and culture of Guangxi in particular and China in general are very diversified and beautiful.

"I'm a bookworm, but this exhibition has inspired me to make arrangements for my first trip to China in the near future to see all the beauties there with my own eyes," she smiled.

After the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Chinese and Vietnamese officials and experts attended the seminar during which they shared viewpoints and experiences in connecting development of culture and tourism.

Culture officials from Guangxi centered their presentations on connecting culture and tourism development to create high-quality cultural tourism products, and on further tapping potential of landscape culture and tourism in ethnic areas.

At the seminar, representatives of Vietnamese museums mentioned some other ways of further tapping museums to promote tourism at home and abroad such as joining hands with local travel agencies and strengthening cooperation with museums in China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea and other foreign countries.

"Our museum and Chinese museums have cooperated well in the three fields of human resource training, archaeological excavation and object display," Nguyen Thi Dinh at the Vietnam National Museum of History told Xinhua on the sidelines of the seminar, adding that she was impressed by a large number of museums in China -- over 5,000.

"Last year in China, I attended a conference with the participation of some 500 Chinese museums. Over 5,000 museums across China are worth visiting not only for cultural tourism but also for academic purposes," Dinh said, smiling warmly.