Pursuing the Shared Dream of Common Development and Prosperity
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 21, 2017
Remarks at the Event of MFA Presenting Yunnan to the World
Chen Hao Secretary of CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee
February 20, 2017
Your Excellency Minister Wang Yi,
Your Excellency Vice Minister Wang Chao,
Honorable foreign diplomats and representatives of international organizations in China,
Friends from the press, Distinguished guests, Ladies &gentlemen, Dear Friends:
Good evening!
I sincerely appreciate the warm words of Minister Wang Yi, the wonderful opportunity provided by the MFA for us to promote Yunnan, and the presence of friends from foreign missions, various organizations, businesses and the press.
Amazing Yunnan enjoys a well-deserved reputation. Since ancient times, Yunnan has been called by poetic names like “the Land to the South of Rosy Clouds” and “Colorful Yunnan”. The province has time-honored history, profound culture, magnificent landscapes, rich resources, diverse ethnicity and talented men and women. The beauty of amazing Yunnan is too much to detail in a time-bound speech, so I would rather introduce 4 pairs of keywords.
Yunnan is a colorful land and a paradise for travelers.
Xu Xiake, a famous Chinese traveler and explorer in the Ming Dynasty, was a great admirer of Yunnan and lauded the land as “an idyllic retreat from the world, where even drifting clouds and mossy stone tell its virgin natural beauty”. Yunnan is well endowed in tourist attraction, be its now-capped plateau, mountain, dale, river, lake, canyon, forest, karst, volcano, geothermal valley, as well as a large number of ancient cities, towns and villages. Its east teems with karst landform, notably the Stone Forest, a world-class wonder and World Natural Heritage. Its north is known for majestic snow mountains, glacier, the World Natural Heritage of Three Parallel Rivers, the World Cultural Heritage of Lijiang Ancient Town, and the heavenly Shangri-la. Its west is famous for inviting landscapes of Cangshan Mountain, Erhai Lake, and folk culture in Dali and vast geothermal valleys and volcano clusters in Tengchong. Its south is renowned for the Terraced Paddy Fields in Yuanyang, another World Cultural Heritage for agricultural civilization, the rain forest of Xishuangbanna, and Puzhehei, the “Border Wonderland”. In central Yunnan, there sits the vast expanse of Fuxian Lake and Dianchi Lake and the flower city of Kunming, the “magnificent city” in the eyes of the famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo.
Yunnan is a picturesque plateau and a treasure of culture.
Remarkable diversity of landform, climate, wild life, ethnicity, and culture draw together an iridescent and mesmerizing painting of picturesque Yunnan. Ethnic groups here, including 25 minority ones and 15 exclusive ones, thrive together in enchanting natural surroundings with mutual help, harmony and inclusiveness. You may witness the life and work of those diligent and brave men and women in Dali, where there stands the nature-inked painting of Cangshan Moutain and the wave-induced concerto of Erhai Lake, along the Nujiang River and the Lancang River, where valleys stretch thousands of miles and steep mountains tower to the sky, and in the drainage of Dianchi Lake, where meandering mountains and myriads of landscapes are vividly mirrored in. They share and carry forward diverse cultural heritages of the Water-Splashing Festival, the Torch Festival, the Munao Zongge Festival, and the Best Attire Festival, etc. Lost Horizon by British writer James Hilton is not only a book on Shangri-la, but also a true epitome of the beauty of diversity, inclusiveness and harmony of man and nature in Yunnan and that of different people, ethnic groups and religious beliefs. Home to the homoerectus Yuanmouensis 1.7 million years ago, Yunnan is an important cradle of human civilization and often famed as a living fossil, bonanza and gene bank of ethnic culture. General Secretary Xi Jinping applauds the ethnic minority culture of Yunnan as an important treasure of the Chinese national culture. Even today, one can easily see in Yunnan unique ethnic cultural life, dazzling literature and arts, and colorful folk customs.
Yunnan is a resort for leisure and a destination of healthy life.
Yunnan has rich resources to help you nourish your life and health. Verdant mountains, clean water, fresh air, and well-preserved ecology are everywhere. The province is long renowned as the kingdom of flora and fauna. There are 1,700 types of vertebrates. The forest coverage rate is as high as 60%. The ecosystem is extraordinarily diverse, including rain forest. We top the country in the variety of wild species and wetland vegetation. We have a complete system of mountain, river, forest, arable land and lake. It is common to see lakes surrounded by perennially green hills, paddy fields irrigated by natural streams, as well as spring-like weather and all-year-round lush blossoms. Fresh air and rich negative oxygen ion make the province a true lung of nature. Thanks to abundant geothermal reserves, hot springs flow unceasingly in all seasons. Green, organic, and eco-friendly agro-products, including vegetable, fruit, flower, tea, flock, medicine and coffee, are widely exported overseas and become nametags of Yunnan. Yunnan is now committing itself to developing comprehensive tourism and health-related industries and building itself to a resort for leisure and a destination for your body and soul. We endeavor to attract more visitors to Yunnan and to our nature, for sweet air, clean water, palate-arousing delicacies, lovely landscapes, and the idyllic “returning-to-simplicity” style of life.
Yunnan is a forefront of opening-up and a regional powerhouse.
Standing by the same mountains and rivers with South and Southeast Asian countries, Yunnan has long been playing a significant role in China’s interaction with the world. The well-known Southern Silk Road is an ancient path that started from Sichuan, meandered through Yunnan to Myanmar, India and Pakistan, and extended all the way to Central and West Asia. Likewise, the Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Road rightly started from Yunnan as well, stretched to Nepal and India via Tibet, and even reached the Red Sea and western Africa. Along those ancient roads, people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds exchanged goods and ideas and learned from each other. Over 6 centuries back, the world-famous Yunnan navigator Zheng He paid 7 expeditions to the Western Seas and contributed an unfading chapter to the ties of ancient China and the world. The trying modern history of China well witnessed the cohesion and valor of people in Yunnan, who stood firm and fought together to save the nation from perils, all attesting to the core qualities of our people, who are open, steadfast, tenacious and committed to their motherland and the Chinese nation for the past, for the present and for the future.
In January 2015, during his visit to Yunnan, President Xi Jinping requested Yunnan to actively serve and integrate into national development initiatives and build a national model area of ethnic solidarity and progress, a vanguard of ecological conservation, and a powerhouse for China’s opening-up to South Asia and Southeast Asia, as provides colorful Yunnan with new driving forces as well as calls of our era. To note, thanks to our engagement in the Belt and Road Initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the BCIM Economic Corridor and the China-Indochina Peninsular International Economic Corridor, Yunnan is becoming a crucial hub for China’s opening-up to South Asia, Southeast Asia and littoral economies of the Indian Ocean. This historic mission is creating unlimited potentials, strong momentum and rare opportunities for Yunnan. We will pool up commitment of all ethnic groups and build a model area of ethnic solidarity and progress with more substantive achievements, sharing with the world our amazing beauty of ethnicity and culture. We will cherish our environment like treasure of gold and silver, become a national vanguard of ecological conservation, protect our rivers, mountains and sky, and enable that rivers run clean to neighboring countries, sharing with the world our amazing beauty of ecology. We will actively serve and integrate into national development initiatives, harness the Belt and Road Initiative, build a powerhouse for China’s opening-up to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and serve as a bridge for closer friendship, exchanges and cooperation, sharing with the world our amazing beauty of opening-up and development.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends,
Forefathers of this country always upheld the good wish for a world of universal brotherhood. While seeking our own growth and prosperity, China today also wishes for shared development with all countries. When attending the World Economic Forum on the 17th of last month, President Xi Jinping called out that “as long as we keep to the goal of building a community of shared future for mankind and work hand in hand to fulfill our responsibilities and overcome difficulties, we will be able to create a better world and deliver better lives for our peoples.” To compose an amazing Yunnan Chapter of the great rejuvenation dream of the Chinese nation, we are ready to join hands with neighboring countries and the rest of the world in pursuing the shared dream of common development and prosperity. We hope that guests and friends in this room may pay and arouse more attention and visits to Yunnan to share the best of this amazing province. Ready to be welcomed by 47 million multi-ethnic men and women.
Thank you.
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