I feel honored to be given the chance to take part in the Hangzhou forum. As the editor-in-chief of China and Russia, launched 10 years ago, I have been to many places in China. This was my first time in Hangzhou. Before I came here I read a lot and heard a lot about the fabulous city. When I saw the city with my own two eyes, it was like all my expectations became reality and the hospitality of people here made the trip a perfect one.

One of the city’s most famous calling cards is West Lake Longjing Tea, ranking among “top 10” tea varieties in China. From historical perspectives, tea is also an important element in China-Russia trade communication. The “tea road”, a trade route created by traders from Shanxi Province in the old times of China, prospered for more than three centuries from the 17th century. Just like the “silk road”, it was once a bustling route that fostered enduring economic and cultural Eurasian communication.

I have been to many cities in China that once served as key points of the “tea road”, including Pingyao in Shanxi Province. Historians have reached a consensus that the charming town with unique historical profundity was once the “capital of finance” of the “tea road”, and the town’s unique tea trade glory is partly based on the reliable capital support ensured by a good many banks providing various financial schemes for tea dealers.

Interestingly, Pingyao has its counterpart in Russia. The small town of Kyakhta also boasts a long history of tea trade. The town’s former glory that transformed into a good many churches, schools and museums has become dust-laden, but it still serves as an important logistic center, due to its geographical location that makes the town a conduit in the railway and highway network of China-Russia transport today.

Such historical likeness has led to the proposal of establishing sister city relation between the two towns. In February of 2019, I was in Pingyao with a delegation representing Kyakhta to work out more details for the project. A follow-up visit in June of the same year by a delegation representing Pingyao made more paperwork into reality – the delegation went back to China with a series of contracts signed with the Kyakhta government, which marked a good start in the “renaissance” of the China-Russia “tea road”.

In its heyday, the “tea road” involved the participation of more than 100 cities in China and a dozen cities and towns in Russia. I am a firm believer in such renaissance through tourism innovation. For people today, the “tea road” has much more worth exploring beyond the transport of tea. The route that connects two different cultures encapsulated in so many cities and towns is ideal for modern people to have a deeper understanding of the past and present of cities and towns involved. The possibilities of cultural exchange and trade benefits to be generated by this meandering stretch are beyond imagination.

For people today, the revisiting of the road does not have to follow the original route that started from, say, Zhejiang Province and ended in Moscow and Petersburg. There are new sites for exploration, for example, the “sea route in the north”. In a sense, the renaissance of the “tea road” also includes a new chapter that is called “Mongolia”.

I look forward to seeing people from Hangzhou visit Russia by taking this ancient route.

Welcome to Baikal!

(The original text in Russian is translated into Chinese by Li Luokai, currently a doctoral student at Lomonosov Moscow State University.)