Distinguished guests, ladies & gentlemen, dear friends:

This evening, here in Kolkata, a wonderful city with a long history and magnificent culture, we are very delighted to share with you the charm of a China's southwestern province, and to feel the passion of the Evening of Colourful Yunnan. This is an occasion we renew our friendship,a time we appreciate each other. Given that,I would like to extend my warm welcome and sincere gratitude to all the distinguished guests and friends present here.

India and Yunnan enjoy time-honoured relationships as close neighbours and friends.

Geologically, the shortest distance between Yunnan and India is some 490 km only. Because of this,trade ties between the two places were developed as early as 2000 years ago when our ancestors penetrated soaring mountains lying between. Around the second century B.C.,the Southern Silk Road ushered more trade business along its way to India. In the subsequent history,tea and animal hides were exchanged as staple merchandise for a long time though the Ancient Tea and Horse Road,which was later opened and served as an important bridge linking China and India. All this not only promoted our bilateral trade and business, but also enhanced our cultural and neighbourly exchanges. Moreover,the destinies of our two nations were even bound by the Stilwell Road,the Hump Flight Route and a Sino-Indian oil pipe line from Kolkata to Kunming during the World War II,when the peoples of both China and India unfold a contemporary moving episode of friendship by fighting together against fascist invasions. Nowadays,the peoples of the two countries have come even closer with a non-stop air link in operation since 2007 between Kunming and Kolkata, which cuts the travelling time between the two cites to more than 2 hours flight only.

In the past few days, my colleagues and I, on this Neighborly Visit to India, have been occupied by a profound resonance that it is the common aspiration and historical mission of our two peoples to carry on our time-honored friendship and boost bilateral exchanges and cooperation. Today, with sincere aspirations of "good neighborliness, close cooperation and a win-win solution", we have come to the beautiful city of Kolkata and conduct the Yunnan Tourism Promotion & the Evening of Colorful Yunnan, through which we could enhance exchanges with various circles of India, better your knowledge of Yunnan, improve neighborly ties between Kunming and Kolkata, and jointly work for a better future for our cooperation and development.

China and India, two great ancient civilizations, jointly composed a brilliant chapter in the world civilization.

The prolonged history of India is a brilliant and ever-lasting epic in human civilization. Anyone who visited India or had a contact with Indian culture will be undoubtedly enchanted by the eternal charm of cultures along the Ganges and Indus River. As close neighbors, China and India enjoy the longest history of exchanges with the most profound mutual influences. Ancestors of our two countries came to and fro to learn from each other and exchange Buddhist scriptures and jointly created a splendid history. Contemporarily, bilateral cultural exchanges continued unceasingly. In Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan of West Bengal, there situates China Bhawan, which was jointly founded by Mr. Tan Yunshan, a famous cultural envoy between our two peoples, and the great Indian poet and sage Mr. Tagore. The college has become a symbol of friendship between our two peoples and an important portal for modern cultural exchanges. In the face of profound history, culture and abundant civilization fruits of the two countries, we share common responsibility to build upon the culture, exchanges and friendship.

Yunnan is a shining pearl in China's cultural treasure house. In its prolonged culture, the Bronze Civilization of Ancient Dian Kingdom (old name of Yunnan) takes a significant position in the bronze culture of China and the world at large. Yunnan's Lufeng dinosaur culture and Ramapithecus culture are unique in the world. And Yuanmou Ape-man that lived in Yunnan 1.7 million years ago and the ape-man in Madhya Pradesh, India 1.8 million years ago are found to be two branches of Ramapithecus during its evolution into human beings. Yunnan is a rare symbiosis zone with a great variety of ethnic groups and diversified cultures. Each of all the 26 ethnic groups in the province has its own colorful ethnic culture, of which, Pattra-leaf Culture, Dongba Culture and Mosuo Culture are highly influential in the ethnic cultural history of China and the world at large. This evening, you will be displayed by The Beautiful Yunnan, a showcase of various cultural features of Yunnan, through which, I believe that friends of India will have a new understanding and feeling of our culture.

Yunnan is also a leading tourism province in China. It boasts beautiful natural landscapes, charming plateau lakes, distinctive karst landforms, magnificent volcanic valleys, soaring snow mountains and glaciers, which constitute splendid scrolls of pictures. There are over 60 renowned scenic spots in the province, among which, the Three Parallel Rivers, Stone Forest, and Lijiang Old Town are listed as World Natural Heritage or World Cultural Heritage sites. Attractive ethnic folklore, colorful cultures and beautiful scenery have become the most characteristic advertisement and symbol of Yunnan. In recent years, the province steps up its efforts to explore the tourist and cultural resources, so as to better introduce them to the world. It is expected that the total number of domestic and foreign tourist arrivals to Yunnan this year will exceed 100 million.

Ladies & gentlemen, dear friends:

With its geographical position, Yunnan has become an important bridge for China-India tourists and cultural exchanges. In recent years, we have received many distinguished guests from India, including H.E.Mr. Narayanan, ex-president of India, H.E.Mr. Nalin Surie, H.E.Mr. Vijay Nambiar, H.E.Mr. Menon, H.E.Ms. Nirupama Rao, former or present Ambassadors to China, and H.E.Mr. Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister of Assam. On the other hand, many government officials and scholars from Yunnan also visit India. With a number of important cultural, academic and educational cooperation programs launched, the two sides now enjoy a favorable basis for further cooperation. Tonight, we gather here to strengthen exchanges and friendship between various walks of Yunnan and their counterparts from West Bengal and Kolkata City. The gathering is an important opportunity to boost tourist and cultural exchanges between Yunnan and India. We are willing to work with Indian friends to holistically strengthen our cooperation in culture and tourism. On this occasion, I'd like to put forward following suggestions:

1. Strengthen cooperation in education. At present, Dali College in Yunnan has enrolled about 300 students from 10 states of India. We should expand the size and scale of mutual visits among scholars and students, so as to attain more and better outcomes in educational cooperation. Meanwhile, efforts should be made to advance the cooperation between Niketan International University and universities in Yunnan by establishing sister-university relationships, thus setting up a sound channel for university-to-university academic exchanges and educational cooperation.

2. Strengthen cooperation in culture. Our two sides may organize and launch in turn various events like Cultural Week, etc. In this way, featured cultural forms can be introduced to each other, for example, by launching Film Weeks, Culture and Art Festivals, song and dance shows, and calligraphy and fine arts exhibitions, etc. What's more, academic exchanges should also be carried out in more forms. I suggest that our two sides jointly shoot a TV series titled A Revisit to Southern Silk Road, so as to fully demonstrate the prolonged history of bilateral economic, trade and cultural exchanges.

3. Strengthen cooperation in tourism. Both sides should boost cooperation in tourism investment, marketing, industrial organization and employee training, etc. In particular, we should increase contacts between Yunnan and Buddhist shrines like Bihar, etc, so as to jointly develop Buddhist tourist products and explore a Yunnan-India Buddhist tourist route. As Yunnan and India also share broad common ground in the protection and management of world heritages, related exchange and cooperative mechanisms should be established. Today, we have the presence of many representatives of travel agencies. Cooperation between travel agencies should become our next priority. To facilitate mutual tourist visits, I hope that related tourist administration of India may set up a visa office in Kunming.

4. Strengthen cooperation in transportation. Though Yunnan and India are neighbors, there remain various kinds of inconvenience in transportation. Both sides should make concerted efforts to construct more and better overland passages, open flights from Kunming to New Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai, etc, or extend the Kunming-Kolkata flight to those cities, so as to create better conditions for our close cooperation.

Dear guests and friends,we are fully convinced that closer partnership between Yunnan and West Bengal can serve as a breakthrough for Yunnan's comprehensive cooperation with India,can as a brave and fruitful link for the friendship of the two peoples,and can write a new chapter of good neighborliness for our future generations. I am here sincerely inviting you,our guests and friends present this evening,to Yunnan my beautiful province for business,sightseeing and other personal experiences.