'Culture cities' make solidarity pledge

Cities honored with the title "Culture City of East Asia" should work together to build and share a prosperous East Asia, continuously promote cultural exchanges, solidarity, development and mutual benefit among China, Japan and South Korea as well as other countries in the world, said a joint declaration signed at the 2023 Opening Ceremony of Culture City of East Asia: Year of Chengdu.

Hosted by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Sichuan Province and the Chengdu government, and undertaken by the Chengdu Bureau of Culture, Broadcast, TV and Tourism, the event held in the Sichuan provincial capital on Thursday, aimed to deepen the spirit of the Trilateral Culture Ministers' Meeting, consolidate East Asian cultural consensus, and promote ties among the three peoples.

More than 200 participants attended the event and witnessed the signing of the declaration by 17 cities honored with the "Culture City of East Asia" title.

Chen Zhiyong, vice-mayor of Chengdu, said in his speech that as an important achievement in the humanities field of the China-Japan-ROK Leaders' Meeting, the "Culture City of East Asia" is a concrete measure to implement the spirit of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations and to create a community with a shared future for mankind.

In his speech, Heita Kawakatsu, governor of Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, expressed his hope that Chengdu and Shizuoka can use the opportunity to strengthen cooperation in cultural and other fields and build a new relationship.

Chengdu and Jeonju in South Korea, which both have a long history and culture, will bring their friendship to a higher level through various cultural exchanges, said Woo Beom-ki, mayor of Jeonju.

Chengdu was the capital of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms (220-280) and the Three Kingdoms culture has a profound influence in East Asia.

The "Culture City of East Asia" title was launched in 2013 by China, Japan and South Korea. Each year, between one and two cities from each of the three countries are selected. This year the selected cities are Chengdu and Meizhou in China, Shizuoka prefecture in Japan and Jeonju in South Korea.

At the opening ceremony, recommendations were released for 10 boutique tourism routes in Chengdu including panda-related and Three Kingdoms-related trips.