Published on: 2026-09-17
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
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Harbin, September 17 /Xinhua/ — In August of this year, the 16th China-Russia Culture and Arts Fair concluded in the city of Heihe, Heilongjiang Province /Northeast China/. According to Mu Shanxue, Deputy Secretary-General of the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, during this event “the influence of the platform was further strengthened, the interaction structure was expanded, cooperation models were improved, and the role of technology became even more evident.”
Over the past 16 years, this fair has transformed from a regional cultural event with local color into a large-scale cultural exchange event between the two countries.
Recall that the 1st China-Russia Culture and Art Fair opened in the city of Heihe on August 18, 2010. “We participated in the first fair – at that time mainly handmade crafts and books were exhibited and sold. The number of exhibits and participants were incomparable to the current figures,” recalls a local entrepreneur from Heihe.
On July 3, 2026, the 16th China-Russia Culture and Art Fair opened in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. This year, the event featured for the first time cooperation among four regions and six cities of the two countries.
Heihe and Blagoveshchensk are located on opposite banks of the Heilongjiang/Amur River, and the distance between them at the narrowest point is only a few hundred meters, which is why they are called the “twin cities of Russia and China.” Besides the “twin cities of Russia and China,” other cities from both countries were also involved in the 16th China-Russia Culture and Art Fair. For instance, in the city of Mudanjiang, a cross-border tourist train Suifenhe-Vladivostok was launched, and the authorities of the city of Jiamusi held a special presentation of cross-border tourism products in Khabarovsk (Russia).
Moreover, as part of this year’s fair, 76 thematic events were organized covering areas such as culture, tourism, education, healthcare, and sports. Among them were artistic performances, folklore processions, art exhibitions, demonstrations of intangible cultural heritage projects, and others. The event, which lasted more than 30 days, involved over 1 million residents from China and Russia, with the total number of viewers online and offline exceeding 10 million people.
Tao Dandan, the heir to the craft of making birch bark products from the city of Heihe, presented paintings and tableware made from birch bark at her booth. Within the framework of the fair, in recent years she has met many Russian artists and learned that similar craft traditions exist in Russia.
“Here I had many opportunities to communicate with Russian artists, which not only broadened my horizons but also allowed me to make new friends,” said Tao Dandan.
Alexander from Russia, in turn, got acquainted with the history of Heilongjiang Province through an immersive event using mixed reality technology, which, according to him, allowed him to fully experience the charm of traditional Chinese culture.
According to the organizers of the China-Russia Fair of Culture and Art, over more than 10 years this event has already become an important connecting link and a model of cultural fusion, coexistence of culture and tourism, economic and trade interaction, as well as people-to-people exchanges in the border areas of China and Russia. -0-
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