During his visit to Kazakhstan in September, President Xi Jinping proposed that China and Central Asia join hands to build a Silk Road economic belt to boost cooperation. The idea has been widely echoed in Central Asian countries, becoming an encouraging blueprint for Chinese areas along the Silk Road that has linked Asia and Europe for more than 2,000 years.
Tourism and cultural exchanges will be useful tools in building the new foundation for the Silk Road economic belt. The modern Silk Road is expected to promote commodity exchanges as well as cultural exchanges.
The modern Silk Road is more than just a channel for China to import resources such as crude oil, natural gas or farm products from Central Asia. The city has been dedicated to promoting cultural exchanges with people from Central Asia. People from Central Asia could visit China's western provinces first to see what the ancient Silk Road did to benefit their countries in the past.
The city's Giant Buddha Temple, established in 1098 about 600 kilometers west of Gansu's provincial capital, Lanzhou, received more than 1,100 Central Asian and Turkish visitors in 2013. The number has steadily increased