Chennai, Fujian ties date way back to Tang Dynasty

When President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began their second informal summit on Friday in India, the seaside temple town of Mamallapuram they visited was a reminder of the ancient links between the two neighboring countries.

At the old seaport town near Chennai, capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Modi took the Chinese leader to several temples and monuments built during the Pallava dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries along the Coromandel coast on the first day of their two-day informal summit.

Though the Indian authorities did not highlight why the meeting venue was selected, analysts have said that New Delhi wants to revive the stories of centuries-old trade and cultural links between China and India to boost bilateral ties amid some thorny issues in their relations as well as the changing regional and global situation.