Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in Beijing on Monday to attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which will be held in the Chinese capital from September 4 to 6.
The president's plane landed at the Beijing Capital International Airport at 15:45 local time.
China and Zimbabwe enjoy profound traditional friendship and political mutual trust, and China has strongly supported the Zimbabwean people in their struggle for national liberation. Zimbabwe established diplomatic relationship with China on the very day of its independence, and the two countries will mark the 45th anniversary of the relationship in 2025.
The two countries have seen frequent high-level visits to each other. In April 2018, China became the first non-African country that Mnangagwa visited after he took office as the president, and during his visit, China-Zimbabwe relations were elevated to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. In September of the same year, he went to China again to attend the 2018 FOCAC Beijing summit.
China is Zimbabwe's largest source of investment and its third largest trading partner, and large lithium mines and steel plants invested by Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe have been put into operation in succession.
The renovation and expansion project of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, with financing support from China, is nearing completion. China's "small but beautiful" projects like the Juncao technology assistance are in full blossom in Zimbabwe.
The upcoming FOCAC summit will be held with the theme "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future."
Many African leaders, including Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, will lead delegations to the summit. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will attend as a special guest, and relevant international and regional organizations will participate as observers.
President Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote speech at the summit’s opening ceremony on September 5.
Following the 2006 FOCAC Beijing Summit, the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, and the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit, the upcoming summit will be another happy reunion for the friendly family of China and Africa. It will also be the largest diplomatic event hosted by China in recent years.
Zimbabwean president arrives in Beijing
The Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, to be held by China Media Group (CMG), will provide a stunning visual feast through the ingenious combination of state-of-the-art technologies and picturesque landscape scenery, aiming to impress the audience via delicate stage designs in romantic and aesthetic settings.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Tuesday this year. CMG has announced that the gala is going to take place in Shenyang City, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.
The stage for the upcoming gala has been set on the lakeside of Dingxiang Lake in Shenyang City as the event is aimed to present an impressive "beautiful, sincere, lyrical, and romantic" artistic vision.
Nestled against the lake, the circular stage featuring a 360-degree panorama highlights the integration of art and modern technologies.
The biggest highlight and innovation of the stage design is a movable "full moon". With a diameter of 12 meters, the moon weighing 10 tons sits on the main stage and casts light on the rippling water.
"The use of water is a feature of the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala. We hope that the mutual reflections of the images will evoke longing for family reunion. These buildings with styles of Ming and Qing dynasties, the typical and simple Chinese moon gate, we hope that through graphics, modeling, physical scenery set and the overall structural setting of the stage, we can combine Chinese aesthetics with modernity and infuse the Chinese aesthetics in the Mid-Autumn Festival stage creation, so as to present them to Chinese people around the world," said Wang Chen, director of stage art of the gala.
"When I got here and saw it today, I thought the stage setting is so beautiful. The big moon delivers an artistic conception. And there is a pavilion by the water. When a performer stands inside and sing, it looks like a beautiful painting. This time I will sing a very beautiful song, and I'll also dance in my performance. I hope people will like it," said Jin Chen, a performer.
In addition to the theme of family reunion, this year's Mid-Autumn Festival Gala also incorporates patriotism, as well as precious video clips showcasing the development of the country.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a significant traditional Chinese festival celebrated on the night when the moon reaches its fullest and brightest on the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar.
During the festival, family members would come together, share mooncakes while admiring the moon, and light up lanterns to enjoy the happiness of family reunion.
CMG unveils moon-shaped, dreamlike stage of Mid-Autumn Festival Gala
