Indian Delegation Visits Cultural Dialogue

On October 18， 2011， a delegation of seven from Indian Association for Global Cooperation and Cultural Relations visited the Cultural Dialogue in Hangzhou. The two sides met and talked.

Editor-in-Chief of Cultural Dialogue Ying Jinquan welcomed Indian guests and introduced the 26-year-0old Cultural Dialogue to the friends. Zhejiang， famed for its rich resources and talents and celebrated for its long history and culture， publishes the monthly and distributes it to more than 150 countries and regions across the world for cultural dialogue between China and the rest of the world. Mr. Ying hoped that Indian friends could favor our readers with stories from India.

The Indian delegation had decided to visit Cultural Dialogue simply because of a story on friendship between Debendranath Tagore (1861-1941) and Xu Zhimo (1897-1931) published in the May issue of 2011. When the name of Tagore came up， the discussion became warmer and more pleasant.

Mr. He Yifeng， the deputy director of Cultural Dialogue， quoted a poem from Tagore and mentioned that he had read Tagore in his middle school years. He said that the story in the issue of May 2011 was a positive response to promoting the cultural exchanges between the two large neighbors in Asia. The year 2010 marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of diplomatic relations between China and India and the year 2011 is the official year of cultural exchanges between the two countries. The year 2011 also marks the 150th anniversary of Tagore and two museums in Hangzhou have hold exhibitions in honor of the Indian poet. Cultural Dialogue ran a story on the life of Wei Fengjiang (1912-2004)， a Hangzhou native and Tagore’s only Chinese student， in the issue of August 2005.

At the meeting， Mr. He recalled the visit of Madam Sonia Gandhi to Hangzhou in 1993. He was a member of the reception team 18 years ago. Mr. He said he was deeply impressed by Madam Sonia Gandhi’s beauty， wisdom and amiability. He shared the old photos taken in 1993 with the Indian guests.

The two sides exchanged gifts and contact information， and promised to keep in touch and promote friendship between the two countries. The Chinese hosts and Indian guests looked forward to meeting again in the future.