Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Friday met with visiting Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan, praising his great contribution to world literature.

"Mo Yan's works contributed a lot to world literature, which have been translated into Turkish and attracted great attention of Turkish readers," Gul said at his meeting with Mo Yan, according to the president's official website.

Meanwhile, Gul said the relations between Turkey and China have a deep-rooted past, expressing his pleasure over the bilateral cooperation in cultural matters.

For his part, Mo Yan said: "The Chinese people's interest in the Turkish people and culture is on the rise," adding that he was impressed by the preservation of the historic and cultural fabric of Istanbul, which has hosted many civilizations throughout history.

In order to strengthen cultural exchanges with China, Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry launched a project of "100 Chinese Intellectuals," which invited Mo Yan to visit Turkey.

The Chinese writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. He is famous for the hallucinatory realism of his epic historical novels, such as Red Sorghum Clan and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. Endi