“今日中国”艺术节在瑞典开幕

Chinese Ambassador Lan Lijun declared the opening of the 2013 China Festival in Stockholm.

"China Festival today will provide a good opportunity for the Swedish people and visitors from other countries with a totally new and multidimentional understanding of China. It will also enable them to experience the charisma of the Chinese culture and promote exchanges in all fields."

Ambassador Lan said China-Sweden relations have become more mature, exchanges between the two sides are more fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation steadily deepened. He hopes that overseas Chinese in Sweden will continue to actively integrate into the society and make new contributions to prosperity and the friendly cooperation between China and Sweden.

China Festival was organized by the Swedish Chinese Federation with broad participation and strong support of many Chinese organizations in Sweden.

Ye Peiqun, Secretary General of the Federation and Executive Director of the 2013 China Festival Organizing Committee also spoke at the opening ceremony.

Ye Peiqun said China Festival will show the rich Chinese culture for the Swedish public. They include food culture, traditional Chinese medicine, Suzhou embroidery, stone culture from Qingtian, acrobatics from Cangzhou and three day stage performances.

He hopes that these activities will further promote bilateral exchanges in various fields.

Klas Nyman, deputy chief of Protocol Department of Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said the relationship between Sweden and China is both rich and broad and culture forms a central element in bilateral cooperation.

"I think this festival demonstrates a clear interest from both sides to learn more of each others and among all of us, who have gathered here today has a strong interest in China and Chinese culture, therefore I am confident that this festival will be successful in promoting cultural exchanges and bringing forward cooperation between our two countries."

A wide variety of performances followed the opening ceremony attracting thousands of audience who also have the opportunity to taste the Chinese food and all kinds of cultures such as calligraphy and paintings.

For CRI, this is Chen Xuefei reporting from Stockholm.