The opening ceremony was honored by the presence of Yu Ganqian, Deputy Director of BMCTD, Bounhengand HongthongChanthavong, First Secretary of Education and Culture Section,Embassy of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the People’s Republic of China,Robert Koroma, First Secretary ofEmbassy of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the People’s Republic of China, Wu Tian, President of the Student Union of the Kingdom of Cambodia in China, Fu Zhifeng, CUEB President, Xu Fang, Deputy Secretary of CPC CUEB Committee and Yang Kaizhong, CUEB Vice President.

The festival began with Blooming Flowers and Full Moon, a music number by CUEB Student Art Troupe. The performance, fervent and brimming with traditional Chinese flavor, immersed Jingmao Square in a convivial and harmonious atmosphere.

Fu Zhifeng addressed the opening. He put that the past four years had witnessed substantial support for and vigorous participation in the Belt and Road Initiative from some 100 countries and international organizations since the inception of B&R in 2013 by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. The construction of B&R was evolving from theory to practice, dream to reality. The 19^th CPC Report also highlighted China’s commitment to furthering cooperation with the globe to facilitate the construction of B&R.

Fu Zhifeng pointed out that CUEB International Culture Festival aims “to learn from each other in an open and inclusive manner” from B&R. With huge successesin both of the two festivals held, the event congregates various cultures, reflects disparate national and regional features and provides deeper understanding of foreign cultures for teachers and students through youths’ perspective. Sections like Cultural Performance and Ethnic Show serve as a stage forforeign students to show and improve themselves and a platform for teachers and students to display splendid Chinese culture.

Afterwards, a video was shown on the huge display on the square, reviewing great moments of 2017 International Youth Tourism Festival. Yu Ganqian summarized that through various experiential activities in the past 3 months,over 1000 world youths and tourists not only got to learn about the profound history and culture of Beijing but also experienced a convenient Beijing tour enabled by scientific and technological innovation. The tourism festival exemplifies tourism’s role as a bridge that enhances communication among countries along the Silk Road and spurs cultural exchanges between Chinese youths and their international peers.

Yu Ganqian presents CUEB a gift on behalf of BMCTD. Xu Fang receives the gift and has a picture taken with Yu.

Li Xiaoyu, a representative of foreign students, notes that he not only makes many new friends, but also has a taste of Chinese culture by learning to draw and write with Chinese brushes and appreciating the facial makeup in Peking Opera.

CUEB leaders and their honorable guests announce the launch of the festival on the rostrum.

Foreign students from the South Sea Islands, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Cuba and Ukraine perform folk dance of exotic charm and primitive vitality. 

Dressed in folk costumes, 50 foreign students from more than 30 countries put on a costume show with music, displaying the charm of their costumes with elegancy while showing the brilliant cultures of their countries.At about 12 pm, Chinese and foreign students in folk costumes with national flags in their hands, started off from CUEB Jingmao Square, walked across the northwest corner of the library, XichiPond, Jintaige Road and Guanghua Road, then returned to Jingmao Square along the Jingxiange Road, Youth Square and the northeast corner of the library. The lively PPAP Tokyo Dance performed by Goto Tomoko attracted the audience attention back to the stage.Students prepared wonderful programs for the opening ceremony like Forever, a song and dance mix by Laotian students, Beijing Guoan I Love You sung by Fu Da, Blooming, a dance by CUEB Student Dance Troupe, Korean songs by South Korean girls, original songs by Bai Fei, Mongolian dance and magic tricks, to name a few. These performances livened the opening up and won deafening applause.

With 65 well-decorated booths neatly arranged on either side and at the center, Jingmao Square looked like a miniature version of a "Multinational Palace". With Students congregating in the square, the festival also enticed teachers and parents to get a taste of the joyful atmosphere. Foreign students prepared various interactive activitiessuch as games, graphic displays, ethnic music performances and delicacies tasting that combined traditional cultures with modern elements to show the unique charm of their cultures. Teachers and students shuttled back and forth in various booths toenjoy the exotic cultures. 10Chinese student clubs were invited to the festival, including Multinational Language Club and Phoenix Hanfu Club. They decorated booths into showcases of the profound traditional Chinese culture.

Participants totaled over 1000, including some stafffrom Embassies in China, CUEB teachers and students, 9 time-honored enterprises in Beijing like Bianyifang and GODLY, and representatives offoreign employees from corporations in Beijing likeChinaInternational Publishing Group. Since the launch of 2017 International Youth Tourism Festivalsponsored by BMCTD in July, CUEB has offered full support and made prominent achievements by engaging over 60 foreign students from 20-or-so countries along the Silk Road in the festival. The two sides decided to co-sponsorthe Achievements of Beijing International Youth Tourism Festival and to hold it in conjunction with the 3rd International Culture Festival of CUEB for further cooperation and culture exchange.

The festival served as an epitome of CUEB’sefforts to keep in line with the world. In recent years, CUEB cooperated with foreign institutions of higher learningto build up talents cultivation systems up to international standards, adding steam to CUEB’s internationalization efforts. With the implementation of the B&Rinitiative, CUEBwill actively explore further cooperation and exchange in culture and education with countries along the Belt and Road It will also continue to strengthen the partnerships with institutions of higher learningin Europe, Southeast Asiaetc.  to step up international cooperation and innovation in service to national development strategies.