China Through the Eyes of a Press Tour — 1: From the Great Silk Road to Modern Dialogue
I had read numerous articles about China, watched many films, and heard countless stories from people who had been fortunate enough to visit this country. Then I, too, had the opportunity to travel to the Middle Kingdom and see this fascinating country with my own eyes. And I realized how difficult it is to embrace it within the framework of a single business trip. China cannot be understood at first sight: it reveals itself gradually, like a multilayered silk scroll. So when I was once again included in an official press tour, I regarded it not simply as another work trip, but as a long-awaited opportunity to continue an exciting dialogue with a great civilization.
Happy moments in anticipation of upcoming meetings
We learned that we would visit Fujian Province. And that was wonderful! After all, this region is located in a truly heavenly corner of China — in its far southeast. The shores of the province are washed by two seas at once — the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Where else can you see such a thing?
The waters of these seas are connected by the Taiwan Strait, which lies between mainland China and the Chinese island of Taiwan. This makes the region an important hub of the Maritime Silk Road, whose significance is not widely known.
Besides being a major innovation and industrial hub, Fujian has also established itself as one of China’s most picturesque and distinctive coastal provinces. It is the birthplace of tea and tea culture. It was from here that the famous white tea spread around the world.
Were we really going to see all this!?
The itinerary of our visit included the city of Xiamen, near which, as far as I know, there is a pedestrian island completely free of cars. Wonderful! The call “Back to nature!” put into practice. Even electric scooters are prohibited there! Surely every visitor who enters this paradise must feel as though they have found themselves in a pre-industrial medieval land.
Although I have never been there, I am certain that it would be difficult to find a place anywhere in the world more suitable for tea meditation or the therapeutic practice of tai chi.
In addition to Xiamen, we were to visit the cities of Ningde and Fuzhou. All three are important centers of the region. They represent the diverse areas in which the People’s Republic of China is developing successfully — the marine economy and high technologies, modern industry and mass tourism. Hardworking residents, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (in modern China, everything of strategic importance is carried out under the guidance of the CPC), are implementing large-scale socioeconomic, environmental, historical and cultural, and other major projects.
As for Turkmen-Chinese relations, they are, as is well known, rooted in deep history, dating back to the times when our peoples lived as neighbors. But centuries later, our direct ancestors — the Oghuz — gradually began moving southwestward and, many centuries later, changed their ethnic name to “Turkmen.”
Yet even great distances could not sever our ties. With the beginning of the operation of the most grandiose route of antiquity — the Great Silk Road — these ties acquired a systematic character, facilitating the exchange of goods, knowledge and cultural values.
Today, this historical connection has acquired new content — through the state wisdom and strategic vision of the leaders of our countries, bilateral cooperation is successfully developing in the political, trade and economic, and cultural and humanitarian spheres.
People-to-people diplomacy, including cultural and information exchanges, plays an important role in strengthening mutual understanding between peoples. One such exchange was the current press tour organized by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Turkmenistan and Renmin Huabao Publishing House.
Today, Renmin Huabao is a major media complex producing print and digital publications in dozens of languages around the world. Although the first issue of a magazine bearing this name was published 76 years ago, the current generation of its employees proudly say that the calligraphic inscription used for the publication’s title was personally written by Mao Zedong!
…Jumping ahead, let me sum up: the trip was so useful and interesting that I cannot wait to tell you everything, all at once. And that is exactly what I am going to do now.
Xiamen: Marine Economy and Technological Development
The first venue for our meetings was the Xiamen Marine High-Tech Industrial Park, a major specialized innovation industrial zone in Fujian Province. Here in Xiamen, highly qualified specialists are successfully developing modern marine technologies and various areas of what is known as the “blue economy,” including technologies for utilizing marine resources and marine services, while producing marine biological and functional products.
We were presented with information on research and innovation projects in marine seed production and environmental monitoring. In particular, these projects were presented by Mr. Zhang Liansong, Chief Engineer of the Xiamen Municipal Marine Development Bureau and Deputy Head of the Special Working Group dealing with issues related to the Xiamen Marine High-Tech Industrial Park.
According to him, particular attention here is paid to the integrated interaction (I would like to emphasize that this very approach is considered the most effective today!) of science, high technologies and the marine industry, as well as to their practical application. To this end, the necessary infrastructure has been created, bringing together research laboratories, business incubators, production bases and logistics centers.
It was very interesting and informative, and I thought that the experience gained by Chinese developers could be useful for Turkmenistan, taking into account our plans for further developing the marine economy of the Caspian coastal region. Therefore, I tried to engage Mr. Zhang Liansong in an exclusive conversation. Fortunately, he gladly accepted my invitation to give an interview to the ORIENT website. When I asked him to tell us in greater detail about the work of the Xiamen Marine High-Tech Industrial Park, he replied:
– Our Park is actively involved in China’s national and regional programs for the development of the marine economy. This contributes to strengthening Xiamen’s position as an international center of innovation and trade. Research institutions play an important role in our work. Thanks to them, we extract and deeply process seafood, isolate valuable components and biomaterials. We also develop highly valuable pharmaceutical products from marine raw materials.
– In just three years, the Xiamen Park has reached a very high technological level and gained international recognition. How did such vigorous activity begin?
– It all began with the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” strategy. This strategy is an integral part of China’s global “Belt and Road” initiative. Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, this initiative recreates the historical trade routes of medieval China at a modern infrastructure and technological level.
Our province of Fujian, where the cities of Xiamen, Ningde and Fuzhou are located (you will visit them during the press tour, the speaker clarified), was officially designated by the Government of the People’s Republic of China as a key area and starting point of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Thanks to this approach, the ports and enterprises of Fujian Province have come to play an important role in this global program.
– Your field of activity is very specialized, so it seems to me that both personnel training and equipment must also be quite specialized…
– Yes, that is correct. We develop the equipment we need ourselves for studying the continental shelf. This includes underwater vehicles for ecosystem monitoring, as well as for developing renewable marine energy, in which wind and wave energy occupy important positions.
The point is that offshore wind power plants use strong, stable winds without sudden gusts that form above the surface of seas and oceans to generate electricity, while wave energy is generated through the kinetic and potential energy of sea waves. In modern marine energy, these two sources are increasingly considered in combination.
The development of marine logistics, satellite monitoring, navigation and digital platforms for port management also occupies an important place in our work.
– Which organizations does your Park cooperate with?
– The Xiamen Marine High-Tech Industrial Park positions itself as a platform for interaction with Southeast Asian countries, BRICS members and participants in the “Belt and Road” initiative, as well as for scientific and industrial cooperation with Taiwan. Our Park maintains productive cooperation with leading universities and institutes in the region. These include Xiamen University, the Third Institute of Oceanography under the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China, and other partners.
– Could the experience of the Xiamen Park be useful to Turkmenistan in developing the marine economy of the Caspian region?
– We are ready to share our accumulated experience with our Turkmen colleagues, including in the fields of management and scientific research related to the Caspian Sea. Various mechanisms of cooperation could be considered — specialized seminars, personnel exchanges and other formats that would allow Chinese and Turkmen specialists to exchange practical experience and accumulated knowledge.
We are ready to jointly discuss specific areas of such cooperation and explore opportunities for further developing interaction.
…I thanked Mr. Zhang Liansong for his detailed account of the marine high-tech park in Xiamen and for his willingness to build bridges of cooperation with Turkmen colleagues.
After that, in accordance with the program, we headed to the historical and cultural region of Minnan. More precisely, we visited a tourist complex whose name literally means “Southern Fujian,” while in a figurative translation it means “Encounter in Minnan,” as well as “Minnan Illusion.”
This complex is one of the main attractions for tourists visiting Xiamen. It is a large indoor cultural and tourism center, which is why it is often called an “ideal place for all-weather leisure,” as it is protected from heat and rain. The venue, designed as a gigantic historical quarter encompassing architectural styles from different eras, was created to introduce visitors to the history, architecture and traditions of local culture through the immersive effect of an artificially recreated environment.
How does it work?
That is precisely its main feature! Visitors can rent traditional costumes, have their hair styled and makeup done in the style of ancient China, and then stroll through the streets as if nothing unusual were happening, among other “transformed” tourists like us.
Moreover, visitors to the historical complex who have been “transformed into Chinese characters” can spontaneously join improvised mini-performances with “undercover” actors who also wander among the crowds of tourists.
Skillfully recreated red-brick houses with curved roofs, streets lined with craftsmen, and food courts offering classic street dishes from the Minnan region help visitors immerse themselves in other identities and different historical eras. All of these elements blend harmoniously into the historical setting.
We were told that various shows, theatrical performances, acrobatic acts, intangible cultural heritage festivals and other performances are held regularly around the clock throughout the complex.
…Naturally, we had barely recovered from the flights from Ashgabat to Urumqi, from there to Wuhan, and only then to Xiamen. Yet the new meetings and impressions did not tire us at all. On the contrary, they gave us renewed energy and vitality, and strengthened our desire to continue getting to know China not through books, articles and films, but in person.
Our next stop was Ningde, a major prefecture-level city located on the coast of the Taiwan Strait.
Enejan KEPBANOVA,
Ashgabat–Xiamen–Ningde–Fuzhou–Ashgabat
