At 17:30 on November 2, Beijing time (12:30 local time in Russia), Tourism College of Zhejiang and Russian State University of Tourism and Service celebrated the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute and the opening ceremony for the Class 2025 online. President of the college Ms. Du Lanxiao and her Russian counterpart Mr. Alexander Fedulin attended the event. Participants also included officials, faculty and students from both sides.

Mr. Fedulin first congratulated on the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute. He said that two sides have collaborated closely and made remarkable achievements in education since the establishment of the institute. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought difficulties to the cross-nation education cooperation, but fortunately, the Chinese language teaching continued with the help of "online classroom". Over the past five years, the institute has enrolled 162 students, among whom 15 have obtained the International Chinese Proficiency Certificate. He hoped that normal exchanges could resume as soon as possible and two sides could cooperate more closely.

Ms. Du Lanxiao also expressed her congratulations on the anniversary and extended her warmest welcome to the 27 freshmen of the institute. She said that two sides took joint efforts to continue the teaching and learning on the internet. The online courses had no impact on students' enthusiasm for learning and their learning effects as well. She encouraged the students to concentrate on the Chinese learning in every class with the help of our faculty and teaching assistants. In the future, they will all become ambassadors of cultural exchanges between China and Russia, and contribute to the common development of China and Russia in economic and social fields. Finally, Ms. Du Lanxiao expected to resume the exchange programs after the end of the pandemic.

At the celebration, Russian student representatives Lisa and Margarita recited an ancient Chinese poem in Chinese, while Chinese Russian majors sang the famous Russian song "Katyusha". The freshman representative of Class of 2025 Dalia expressed her love for China and Chinese language.

In this fifth anniversary, we are pleased to show the history and development of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute from 2017 to 2022.

Founding the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute to Serve the "Belt and Road" Initiative

In May 2014, Mr. Yuli Kobenlov, vice president of Russian State University of Tourism and Service visited Tourism College of Zhejiang to discuss the cooperation programs involving student exchange, internship, undergraduate diploma, faculty exchange, and academic research. Two sides reached a consensus and officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding, kicking off the cooperation between the two schools.

In November 2015, Jin Bingxiong, the then president of Tourism College of Zhejiang, led a delegation to Russian State University of Tourism and Service and visited our Chinese students there. Two sides signed the Student Exchange Agreement. In the same year, 9 Russian majors went to Russian State University of Tourism and Service for a one-year exchange program.

Since September 2016, the college has sent 15 Russian majors to Russia for the one-year exchange program every year.

In May 2017, Mr. Fedulin, president of Russian State University of Tourism and Service, and his delegation visited Tourism College of Zhejiang to discuss the cooperation between the two schools. In-depth discussions on deepening cooperation in student exchange, undergraduate diploma, faculty exchanges, and academic research. After the meeting, two sides signed the Supplementary Agreement to the Memorandum of Understanding.

On November 2, 2017, Tourism College of Zhejiang and Russian State University of Tourism and Service held the inauguration ceremony of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute in Moscow. The participants included officials and guests from two countries, such as Mr. Korolev, deputy director of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency, Ms. Silbikina, general director of the "Friendly China" project of the Russian "World Without Borders" tourism association, Mr. Fedulin, president of Russian State University of Tourism and Service, and Yu Jihai, minister counselor of the Education Department of Chinese Embassy in Russia, Mr. Guo Huawei , then director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, Ms. Wang Xiaoxia, director of the Moscow Office of China National Tourism Administration, Mr. Jin Bingxiong , then president of the college, and representatives from the Foreign Affairs Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education and other colleges in the province. The Sino-Russian Tourism Institute is the first tourism education institution organized by a Chinese higher education institute in Russia.

Promoting Educational Cooperation to Innovate Tourism Talents Development

Since the establishment of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute five years ago, the college has selected outstanding teachers to teach in Russia every year. Over the past five years, a total of 189 Russian students have been enrolled. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop the cooperation. Despite the 5-hour time difference and network instability, the institute started the online teaching and live streaming classes to ensure students’ studies.

Meanwhile, the college set up a tourism Chinese teacher studio and revised the Tourism Chinese Curriculum Specifications (Russian version). In addition, the bilingual textbook Tourism Chinese jointly compiled by the two schools received fund from the Chinese Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Education.

Telling Chinese Stories to Promote Cross-Culture Exchanges

The Sino-Russian Tourism Institute encouraged students to participate in various international conferences and competitions to broaden their horizons. For example, students participated in the 5th and 6th Chinese Tea Performance Contest in 2018 and 2019, the short video contest themed on combating the COVID-19 in July 2020, as well as the "Chinese Bridge" Global Chinese Proficiency Competition in October 2022.

Based on the inter-university cooperation, the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute aims to promote Sino-Russian cultural exchanges and tell Chinese stories to the world. In 2018 and 2019, faculty and students of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute held a series of Chinese cultural festivals in Russia to spread traditional Chinese culture, such as the Chinese Food Festival, the Chinese Martial Arts Festival, and the Chinese Drama Festival.

In October 2020, Lisa, a student of the institute, took part in the online Mid-Autumn Festival Cultural Week organized by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China. She sang a famous Chinese song to call for harmony, beauty, courage and hope.

In addition, students from the institute also participated in various tourism promotion events in Moscow as volunteers.

In May 2021, the institute organized the first "I Love My Hometown" Speech Contest in the form of short videos. Students introduced their beautiful hometown in fluent Chinese and showed Russian history, culture, scenery and customs to Chinese people and the world.

Integrating Culture and Tourism to Connect Peoples of Two Countries

In June 2022, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education approved 29 Belt and Road "Silk Road Colleges" in Zhejiang Province, including the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute. The Silk Road college is a brand for overseas educational institutions created by Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education and the Provincial Department of Commerce.

The goal of the Sino-Russian Tourism Institute is to become the cornerstone for cultivating tourism talents in China and Russia, a think tank to promote the growth of the tourism industry in two countries, and a benchmark for the Silk Road colleges.