Recently, the opening ceremony and press conference of the “2016 Amazing Britain Photo Contest” were held in London. It’s focused on the promotion of cultural and people-to-people communication as well as the enhancement of friendship and mutual understanding between China and UK by exhibition, visit, interview, book publishing and photos taken by both sides. The contest aimed for better promotion by combining with an official project of UK tourism Bureau named “Home of Amazing Moments”. In addition, the organizing committee cooperated with the UK office of China National Tourism Administration to start a project named “pictures of beautiful China taken by British photographers”. The opening ceremony was attended by Jin Xu, minister counsellor of China’s Embassy in UK, Jo Leslie, the one in charge of China market expansion department of UK Tourism Bureau, and Henry Dallal, a famous British photographer.

    Jin Xu said in his speech that he spoke highly of the value and significance of Amazing Britain Photo Contest. He also said, “The visit of president Xi Jinping to UK in the last year has laid a good foundation for the development of the friendship between our two countries. After the Brexit, China-UK tie has been more important for UK’s stability and development. Enabling more Chinese to have a better understanding of UK and it’s culture is significant for nongovernmental cultural communication and economic and trade exchanges of deeper level. Photography has become the most widely used daily expression thanks to it’s advantage to transcend language barrier, internet development and the spread of social media. People around the world feel natural to record life and share individual thoughts to observe and understand the world they are in. As a result, it would be meaningful to compare the pictures of beautiful UK taken be Chinese photographer and pictures of beautiful China taken by UK photographer. It can help people from the two countries to have a more thorough understanding of each other and culture.”

    Henry Dallal would be the chairman of the panel of judges of the contest. He said in his speech that people had been curious of other cultures since the beginning of history. Modern transportation was a huge convenience for people to travel freely between places of different cultures and camera could catch valuable and unforgettable instant, which was a way to present civilization from an individual point of view. He himself had been to China multiple times and was full of passion and interest in China’s rich culture and interest, so he couldn’t help but taking photos. He hoped that photography could be a way to strengthen the friendship between China and UK and to promote the development and common prosperity of economy and culture between China and UK.

    Jo Leslie was in charge of Chinese market for UK tourism bureau. She said in her speech that in recent years, the number of Chinese tourists in UK had been tripled each year, which was a strong evidence proving UK’s attraction to Chinese tourists. She also hoped that Amazing Britain Photo Contest could share the beauty of British with more Chinese people and attract more Chinese to feel the charm of UK by themselves.