ATHENS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua)-- Greeks and Chinese from various backgrounds shared stories of strong friendship and fruitful bilateral cooperation at an event here on Friday dedicated to a visiting Chinese delegation from Guangdong Province and their culture.
Organized mainly by Guangdong Provincial Information office, "The Conversations between Greece and China" highlighted the mutual respect between the two countries and peoples and willingness of both sides to strengthen win-win collaboration.
People to people exchanges are of key significance in facilitating communication with countries as far away as China, said Melina Daskalakis, councilor of the City of Athens, welcoming the Chinese delegation to the Greek capital.
Bai Jie, executive deputy director-general of the Information Office of Guangdong Provincial Government and director of Guangdong Film Administration, highlighted the importance of cultural exchanges in deepening understanding.
A representative of a Greek company importing high-quality Pearl River pianos from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, talked about the connections established through music, before a Greek and two Chinese artists performed on stage.
George Papachristos, CEO of Toorbee, a pioneering B2B travel platform that connects small and medium-sized destination service providers from Greece and Europe with major online travel agents in China, told the audience about how he and his brother discovered China and decided to build a bridge to cater to the demands of the dynamic Chinese tourist market.
"In order to approach Chinese people you need to approach them with the right content to the right technological tools and that is why Toorbee, our company, has been investing in technological tools used by Chinese people, investing in strategic partnerships with European banks, European airports, and other big institutions in order to help them with our knowledge of Chinese society to become China-ready," Papachristos explained to Xinhua.
"As more and more Chinese visit Greece they will find an environment that is China-friendly so they can feel more familiar, more secure and be able to spend and use the same tools that they use back home," he said.
Huang Xudong, chairman of Greek Chinese Trade Business Association, and Zhang Xi, a young entrepreneur, also known as Orestis to most Greeks thanks to his participation in popular Greek TV shows, shared their stories about introducing Chinese products to Greeks and Greek products to Chinese consumers.
Miao Bin, CEO of Meet Culture, shared his story about leaving behind a career in the shipping industry after moving to Greece to invest in cultural exchanges between the two countries.
A flutist who has organized concerts with Greek and Chinese artists in Greece and writer of books introducing Greek culture to Chinese, Miao has been awarded by the City of Athens as "Chief Chinese Friend of Athens".
Currently a student of theater studies at a Greek university, he also helped organize the first Greek drama summer school for Chinese students in Greece this year.
"Now my target is to bring the Greek theater to China, to introduce to China both performances and education. This July we have organized a drama summer school in Nafplio for the Chinese students. In the future, we will organize more and I am aiming to bring Greek theater groups to China," he told Xinhua.
