On May 29 and 30, Nicos Ioannou, Member of the Executive Committee of WPA (GPO), Member of the Politburo and Economic Secretary of the Working People’s Progressive Party of Cyprus, and Michael Parides, CEO of Cyprus LAIKO GROUP, visited Jinhua. Shi Yazheng, Member of the Executive Committee of WPA (GPO) and Vice President of CACA, Zhang Qi, Secretary-General of WPA (GPO) and Secretary-General of CACA, Zhang Hong, Deputy Secretary-General and Director of CACA Department of International Cooperation, Li Xiongwei, Secretary-General of Jinhua, and Chen Yan, Director of Foreign Affairs Office of Jinhua Municipal People’s Government, accompanied the visit.

On the morning of May 29, Nicos visited Wanfo Pagoda Scenic Area located in the ancient city of Wuzhou in Jinhua. It is a landmark building in ancient Jinhua, which was built between 1062-1064 AD of Northern Song Dynasty. The original site was located on the hillside of Taxia Temple in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. It is a nine-story octagonal pavilion-style brick and wood structure building built by Buddhist monks with the original name of “Miyin Temple Pagoda”. Each brick on the outer wall of the pagoda is carved with different image of Buddha, hence the name is “Wanfo Pagoda (Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas)”. Nicos expressed that he was deeply attracted by traditional Chinese Buddhist culture and was willing to make efforts to strengthen all-round exchanges between Cyprus and Jinhua.

Li Xiongwei accompanies Nicos on his inspection

Li Xiongwei presents gifts to Nicos

On the afternoon of May 29, Nicos Ioannou et al visited Chinese Wu Opera Theatre and Wu Opera Museum. There they learned about the history and cultural heritage of Wu Opera through the display of collections. Nicos praised the museum’s display of Wu opera costumes as being exceptionally beautiful and striking. The troupe has recently been appointed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Zhejiang Provincial Government, and the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism to visit nearly 50 countries and regions on five continents at the invitation of overseas performers, according to Wang Xiaoping, president of Zhejiang Wu Opera Art Research Institute, who also introduced the troupe's "going abroad" policy. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has scheduled concerts for the second half of the year in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and other places. In the next step, Cyprus and China would discuss ways to cooperate and work to bring this top-notch traditional opera to Cyprus and promote cultural exchanges, according to Nicos, who noted that Wu Opera frequently performed abroad, demonstrating a high level of artistic quality.

Nicos et al visit Wu Opera Museum

Shi Yazheng et al took a group photo with Nicos Ioannou et al at Wu Opera Theatre