At 9 am on May 23, the International Students Cultural Festival (The 5th XJTU International Cultural Festival) and the Educational Exhibition for Countries along the Silk Road were ceremoniously held at the Four Great Ancient Inventions Sculptures Square, XJTU. Those are serial activities of Educational Cooperation and Exchanges Fair between Countries on Silk Road, sponsored by Shaanxi Provincial People’s Government and organized by Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education and XJTU. The theme of the festival is connectivity on Silk Road, growth through New Silk Road Economic Belt strategy, learning at XJTU, and a global dream. The festival is also a signature activity of University Alliance of the New Silk Road (UANSR) initiative and a student event featuring culture, art, and educational exchanges and exhibition at XJTU in alignment with the Educational Cooperation and Exchanges Fair between Countries on Silk Road. Presidents of approximately 80 universities from 20 countries were invited into the festival, including Bauman Moscow State Technical University, University of Liverpool, National University of Singapore, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Harbin Institute of Technology etc. XJTU President Wang Shuguo attended the opening ceremony and presented gifts to presidents of participating universities.

On the stage, the first performance were put up by international students from 5 countries, e.g., Malaysia, Tanzania, Pakistan, the United States, and Kazakhstan, with waist drums, which totally spiced up the sphere. Students of different skins and countries wore the Chinese garments and deeply empowered the audience with their passion. While 17 students from the Kingdom of Bahrain, Thailand, Malaysia, Afghanistan and India etc pull a finale Chinese martial arts performance, which demonstrated their learning achievement at XJTU as well as their intrigue about the Chinese culture. In addition, students from Kygystan, Turkey and Nepal etc also staged wonderful performances, earning acclaims from the audience. Off the stage, international students were busy with exhibiting their cultures attracting a large number of visitors. On the other side of the square, nearly a hundred posters were set up orderly exhibiting educational status of 80 universities from more than 20 countries, gathering wide attention.

It’s reported XJTU enrolled in 2014 nearly 2000 international students from 86 countries. Since 2008, XJTU has successfully hosted four international culture festivals. The festivals demonstrate the exotic customs and cultures of different continents earning wide recognition. This year’s festival coincided with the UANSR initiative. Thus the scale and the number of participants grow larger than before.