The northwestern Chinese city of Lanzhou plans to build a "New
Silk Road" exhibition park to show the development of cities along
the 11,870-km route stretching from the Chinese coast to Rotterdam
in the west.
The 80-hectare exhibition park will include an exhibition hall
of cities along the route, a concert hall of folk music, a gallery
of culture and history, among others, according to the Development
and Reform Commission of Lanzhou.
Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, is a traffic hub of the New
Silk Road, or more formally known as the New Eurasian Continental
Bridge. It was also one of the key cities on the 2,000-year-old
Silk Road. The New Eurasian Continental Bridge, the cheapest and
fastest Asia-Europe land rail route, starts from China's coastal
city of Lianyungang, and goes westward to its terminal at the Port
of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to the west.
Statistics from the UNDP show that over 4,000 km of the
Asia-Europe land route lies within China, extending across ten
provincial areas including Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Anhui, Henan,
Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang.
Lanzhou is hosting the 2007 New Eurasian Continental Bridge
Conference on Regional Economic Cooperation from June 29 to July 4,
which aims to explore ways of expanding cooperation among countries
and cities along the Bridge.
The plan of New Silk Road Exhibition Park will be discussed by
mayors from cities along the route at the conference. In recent
years, the idea of improving economy along the New Eurasian
Continental Bridge and reviving the golden history of the Silk Road
has gained popularity.
(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2007)