The first China-Central Asia cultural tourism train arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and financial hub, on May 31, marking a new chapter in cultural exchange between the two regions. Departing from Xi’an Railway Station in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, the train’s arrival kicked off a four-day cultural and people-to-people exchange event in Almaty.
The event featured a diverse array of activities, including intangible cultural heritage demonstrations, exhibitions of precious artifacts, and promotions of traditional Chinese medicine. These initiatives provided a platform for close cultural dialogue between the people of China and Central Asia.
“The train will take on the new mission of cultural and tourism exchanges and inject strong new impetus into the cultural and people-to-people cooperation between China and Kazakhstan,” said Jiang Wei, the Chinese general consul in Almaty.
The special train service is one of the outcomes of the first China-Central Asia Summit held in Xi’an in 2023. During the summit, China and the five Central Asian countries reached a series of cooperation agreements in fields ranging from politics and economy to technology and people-to-people exchanges. The second summit is scheduled to take place later this year in Kazakhstan.
In the area of cultural cooperation, the parties agreed to deepen regional collaboration by promoting more sister-city partnerships, jointly exploring China-Central Asia tourism routes, and expanding vocational education initiatives. One notable example is the “Luban Workshop” program, named after an ancient Chinese craftsman, which provides vocational skills training tailored to local needs.
Significant progress has been made since the first summit. In September and October 2023, Luban Workshops were inaugurated in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, respectively, marking the third and fourth such vocational training centers China has established in Central Asian countries, following the ones in Tajikistan in 2022 and Kazakhstan in 2023.
On June 27, 2023, the first China Book Center in Central Asia was established in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. China donated over 1,000 types of books covering philosophy, arts, traditional Chinese medicine, and children’s literature, aiming to enhance overseas readers’ understanding of contemporary China.
Starting June 1, 2023, China and Uzbekistan officially implemented a mutual visa-exemption policy, a measure that has greatly facilitated people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
The Year of Chinese Culture in Turkmenistan and the Year of Turkmen Culture in China, held respectively in 2023 and 2024, serve as prime examples of bilateral cultural cooperation. Through diverse activities like exhibitions and dance performances, the two countries showcased their unique artistic and cultural charms, fostering profound cultural integration.
This upsurge in mutual exchanges between China and Central Asian countries is not new. As early as 2014, a joint application by China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan led to the recognition of “The Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor” as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This transnational heritage site comprises 22 locations in China, eight in Kazakhstan, and three in Kyrgyzstan.
Currently, China and the five Central Asian countries have established approximately 70 pairs of sister provinces, cities, and states. There are at least 13 Confucius Institutes in Central Asia, with 24 Confucius classrooms under them, where the number of students exceeds 18,000.
Facilitation of civil exchanges has steadily improved. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have granted Chinese tourists 14-day and 10-day visa-free stays, respectively. According to Kazakhstan’s Border Service, Chinese tourist arrivals surpassed 650,000 in 2023, a significant increase compared to previous years. Hotels in Kazakhstan hosted 173,987 Chinese visitors in 2023, marking a 66 percent year-on-year growth. Bilateral tourism is expected to flourish as Kazakhstan hosts the “Year of Chinese Tourism” in 2024.
During a visit to Tajikistan ahead of the second China-Central Asia Summit, a local resident expressed gratitude for China’s renovation of local highways and shared a simple yet heartfelt hope: “I want to visit China. I hope to travel there via this highway one day.”
