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To publicize the traditional Chinese Spring Festival culture and Chinas intangible cultural heritage—Mianzhu Chinese New Year pictures and the achievements in the construction of new rural areas in Sichuan, and promote friendship between the people of Sichuan and other countries, the Sichuan Provincial Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (SIFA), the Deyang City Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Mianzhu City Government and City Committee of the CPC jointly held the Spring of Friendship 2008 in Mianzhu, the home of Chinese New Year pictures, on February 20, 2008. Over 100 people including consular officers of the ROK, Thailand, Pakistan and Germany in Chengdu, representatives of commercial offices of Japan, the ROK, Australia, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Singapore, the United States and the U. K. stationed in Sichuan, as well as entrepreneurs, experts, scholars and friendly personages of the above countries were invited to the activity.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Qi Guo sheng, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan Provincial Government, expressed his hope that friends from various countries would, as always, take interest in and support Sichuans efforts for opening up, particularly for enhancing people-to-people friendship with other countries, and the development of Sichuan Province and the construction of its new rural areas. He hoped that the people of China and other countries would work hand in hand to make new contributions to the harmony and progress of the human society.

Qin Lin, president of the SIFA, presided over the opening ceremony. In his speech, Jiang Guohua, secretary of the Mianzhu City Committee of the CPC, said, with a history of 2,000 years, Mianzhu is a famous historical and cultural city in Sichuan. He hoped that through visits and exchanges, friends from various countries would know better about the city and bring back the friendship of the Mianzhu people and the charm of the Mianzhu New Year pictures to let more people know about and like the city.

Mianzhu is one of the top ten county-level cities of economic strength in Sichuan. Its New Year pictures have a long history and vivid themes and are very much liked by the people. Its liquor Jiannanchun, which was already enjoyed by the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty as early as over 1,000 years ago, is a famous brand known both at home and abroad. During the activity, the hosts invited the foreign guests to visit the Museum of Mianzhu New Year Pictures, the Museum of the History of Jiannanchun Liquor, the exhibition of Mianzhu New Year pictures and the village of Mianzhu New Year pictures. Theforeign guests visited farmers homes where they watched the making of New Year pictures and learnt to paint the pictures themselves, took part in a series of folk custom activities including sports, watched the dragon and lion lantern performance, the folk costume show, the shadow and puppet plays, lanterns at the lantern festival, the display of fireworks and the folk music performance, and learnt to make tangyuan (dumplings made of glutinous rice flour) and jiaozi (Chinese-style ravioli) by themselves. They spent the Lantern Festival together with the local people and experienced gaiety, happiness and harmony in Sichuans new rural areas.

The foreign guests highly praised the activity and hoped that they would strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Deyang and Mianzhu in the economic, trade, cultural and tourist fields in future.