Photo: Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
ASTANA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said he supports the construction of the "Silk-Road on Golden Bridge" plaza in the Kazakh capital when he met with Chinese artist Shu Yong here Friday.
At the invitation of the Astana municipal government, Shu will help design and build the plaza with his giant sculpture "Silk-Road on Golden Bridge" at the center.
The design of the bridge is inspired by the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013. The initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.
The 28-meter-long and six-meter-high bridge sculpture is made up of 20,000 golden bricks. The gold color comes from artificial amber that enables people to see the inside of each brick, with each brick containing national flowers from dozens of countries along the Silk Road.
Nazarbayev also invited visiting Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to jointly sign the golden brick.
Shu presented Nazarbayev with a silver foil painting to congratulate the president on his 78th birthday and the 20th anniversary of Astana as the capital.
The Chinese artist said the "Golden Bridge" is a bridge of friendship for peoples along the Silk Road and the construction of the plaza will provide a new model for cultural and people-to-people exchanges in these countries.
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