The first Northeast Asia Cultural and Art Expo opened at Harbin International Convention and Exhibition Center on Nov 24, providing a platform to boost culture exchanges and cooperation in the Northeast Asia region.

The expo, which is scheduled to run from Nov 24 to 28, involves three exhibition halls covering an area of around 15,000 square meters. The exhibited items are split into categories of cultural creativity, cultural science and technology, arts and crafts, and intangible cultural heritage.

It attracted the participation of 268 exhibitors from 21 provinces and autonomous regions, as well as exhibitors from Russia, South Korea, North Korea and Mongolia.

The expo highlights works of national-level masters in arts and crafts, with a total of 65 exhibits on display, housing Jingdezhen porcelain, Longquan celadon, cloisonne, Qingtian stone carvings and boxwood carvings.

Additionally, five other activities, including the first Shenzhen-Harbin Cultural Strategic Cooperation Forum, lectures delivered by China’s artists and craftsmen and performances by apprentices carrying on the skills of traditional Chinese crafts, will be held during the expo.

With a theme of “new era, new image and new achievements”, the expo is an effort made by the publicity departments of Harbin and Shenzhen to promote cooperation within the cultural industry with countries in Northeast Asia.

Harbin, capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, is a frontier city for cooperation with Russia. It possesses a strong exotic flavor, which has combined both the history and cultures of its northern ethnic groups. It has helped Harbin earn the nickname “Eastern Moscow”.

Shenzhen in South China’s Guangdong province, is an important window to the modern world and pioneer of China's reform and opening up.

Since last year, the State Council has pushed forward the implementation a strategy to rejuvenate Northeast China, and organized the cities in Northeast China and in East China to establish counterpart cooperation mechanisms.

Under the new policy, Shenzhen and Harbin have made a lot of achievements in the field of culture exchanges and cooperation.

An instrument performance is staged at the opening ceremony for the first Northeast Asia Cultural and Art Expo at Harbin International Convention and Exhibition Center on Nov 24. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Visitors admire calligraphy works at the first Northeast Asia Cultural and Art Expo at Harbin International Convention and Exhibition Center on Nov 24. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

A visitor admires a painting at the first Northeast Asia Cultural and Art Expo at Harbin International Convention and Exhibition Center on Nov 24. [Photo/Chinanews.com]