“Colorful Seasons • Splendid Jilin” culture and tourism promotion exchange held in Hungary

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The melodious Chinese zither piece Listening to the Rain on the Half Hill by the Danube River marked the beginning of cultural and tourism dialogues between China’s Jilin and Central and Eastern Europe. On April 7, the “Colorful Seasons • Splendid Jilin” Culture and Tourism Promotion Exchange was successfully held in Budapest, Hungary. The event not only showcased the Farmers’ Dance, inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List, but also facilitated four strategic collaborations: from film companies renewing “cinematic commitments” to two-way exchanges between publishing groups, and from digital “going global” initiatives to cross-border tourism route development.

The on-site screening of Jilin’s cultural and tourism promotional film, crafted with cinematic visuals, unveiled a land brimming with charm and wonders: In the east, towering peaks shelter roaming tigers and leopards; In the west, grasslands and wetlands host cranes dancing across the sky;  At the heart, vast fertile plains exude the fragrance of abundant harvests. The Changbai Mountain, a vital ecological shield in Northeast Asia, shares the world’s “golden powder snow belt” with Europe’s Alps and North America’s Rockies. Here, the world’s first hydrogen-powered urban train has been launched;  While 117 “Jilin-1” satellites, orbiting over 500 kilometers above Earth, form the world’s largest sub-meter-level commercial remote sensing constellation.

Hungarian guests discovered astonishing cultural parallels in the footage. For instance, the spectacular winter fishing scenes at Chagan Lake, akin to Hungary’s Lake Balaton, could foster a unique cultural tourism economy.

This is precisely why the Jilin provincial delegation have come to Hungary. Despite the vast geographical distance between Jilin and Hungary, the two places share aligned resources and complementary strengths. The Danube River and the Songhua River—“China’s third-largest inland river”—each wind their own courses with unceasing vitality, while the piano melodies of Liszt and Jilin’s local opera traditions, such as Jilin Opera and Peking Opera, resonate with lyrical elegance. These connections foreshadow a promising future for cultural and tourism collaboration between Jilin Province and Hungary.

The four agreements signed that day stand as strong evidence of this. Strategic cooperation agreements were signed respectively between Changchun Film Group Co., Ltd. and Visual Asia Company; Jilin Northeast Asia Publishing & Media Group Co., Ltd. and Hungary’s Kocsis Kiadó; Jilin Jishi Media Co., Ltd. and the Asia-Europe Economic, Cultural and Tourism Development Center; Jilin Tourism Association and the Association of Hungarian Travel Agencies. These partnerships mark the beginning of multi-dimensional collaboration between Jilin’s cultural and tourism enterprises and Hungarian institutions in fields such as film and television production, publishing, and tourism development.
    The signing of these collaborations was witnessed at the event by Cao Lubao, Head of the Jilin cultural delegation, Member of the Standing Committee of the Jilin Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Publicity Department of Jilin Provincial Party Committee; Han Dongsheng, Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Hungary; and Kelemen Gábor, Head of Regional Development-Asia Market at the Hungarian Tourism Agency.