XI'AN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- In order to attend a "Belt and Road" expo, Serbian businessman Alexander Stankovic spent over 25 hours traveling from his Belgrade home to the Chinese city of Xi'an.
The general manager of a winery said he had to transfer flights in Moscow and Beijing, before reaching Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province -- the easternmost point of the ancient Silk Road.
At the 2017 Silk Road International Expo from June 3 to 7, Alexander's display area attracted plenty of visitors and many Chinese clients are considering cooperation with the winery.
The expo was a chance for Serbia to introduce Chinese people to its traditional culture, tourism resources and products, according to Rasim Ljajic, deputy prime minister of Serbia.
In Almaty, Kazakhstan, a China-Kazakhstan agricultural demonstration park is catching the attention of local people.
"We planted 24 kinds of agricultural products here including wheat, corn and beans in 2016. Our new wheat is over 82 percent higher in yield than the local ones," said official with Shaanxi Yangling agricultural demonstration zone Ma Jing.
The park was put together by Yangling, the cradle of Chinese agriculture and home to a hi-tech agricultural industrial demonstration zone since 1997. Yangling has eight agricultural cooperation zones worldwide.
On May 31, a 480 km railway connecting Mombasa to Nairobi in Kenya opened. Local train driver Alice Mugure Gitau was among seven female drivers who received training in Baoji, Shaanxi. She was the driver of the first passenger train on the railway. The railway created 46,000 jobs for local people.
In China, a 2,300 km high speed railway line linking Baoji to Lanzhou city in Gansu Province is about to open. It connects some important cities along the ancient Silk Road, and is ready to connect to railways in central and western Asia and Europe, said Guo Junqi, engineer with China Railway Group.
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, various international cooperation platforms have been set up. On May 31, a world apple industry center was launched in Shaanxi, a famous production base of the fruit in China.
A growing enthusiasm for cooperation between nations has created new opportunities for the young.
According to a January circular issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Education, foreign students with a postgraduate degree or higher from Chinese or well-known foreign universities can be offered employment within a year of graduation.
Vasichenko Kristina is a Russian student studying for a doctorate degree in Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi. She has registered a foreign trade company, hoping to bring more Russian products to China.
Her school mate Nontipa Klangam, from Thailand, is about to graduate this year, and she plans to open a Thai restaurant in Yangling after graduation.
A single purchase
