North China's Shanxi province recently established a strong name for itself among students from more than 80 countries at the 18th World Culture Festival of Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) in the national capital Beijing.

Shanxi was the only province to participate in the World Culture Festival of BLCU due to months of negotiations between Shanxi Investment Promotion Bureau and the university that began in April.

Toward the beginning of that month, 19 universities in Beijing, including BLCU, carried out admission promotion and consultation activities in Shanxi.

"At that time, we had full exchanges with 19 universities, among which I was very impressed by BLCU's World Culture Festival," said Yang Chunquan, director of the Shanxi Investment Promotion Bureau.

BLCU is the only university in China whose main task is to educate international students about the Chinese language and culture. It can carry out in-depth cooperation with Shanxi in terms of language and culture and China-foreign exchanges, and help Shanxi further opening-up in its science and technology sector. 

Yang hoped to use this World Culture Festival to showcase ancient Chinese civilization to students from all over the world, and attract them to understand, study, work and start businesses in Shanxi, while promoting the province on a global level. 

On May 27, art academies, art groups, intangible cultural inheritors and cultural enterprises in Shanxi participated in the 18th World Culture Festival of BLCU. The event attracted more than 30,000 teachers, students and people from all walks of life. Shanxi's specialties, such as Guangling paper-cutting, Yingxian wooden pagoda models, Lihou Tiger doll, and Ningwu Maojian tea, drew the attention of many international students. 

In the future, Shanxi Investment Promotion Bureau will normalize Shanxi's participation in the event, and further strengthen its cooperation with universities across the country.