On 13th October, in Frankfurt, from Xinhua Net (Journalists Ban Wei, Wu Liming and Li Shijia) Vice-President of China Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair, together with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his official visit in Germany. Mr. Xi delivered an important speech of Strengthening the Cultural Exchanges, and Promoting World Peace at the ceremony. There were approximately 2000 participants from the publishing and cultural industries of China, Germany and other countries throughout the world.

Mr. Xi Jinping said, “The ceremonious opening of the annual Frankfurt Book Fair is held inside the harmonious hall in the hometown of Goethe. Different nations from all around the world will conduct extensive cultural exchanges of different languages at the fair, and all the civilization accomplishments will be exhibited. To our delights, China became the guest of honor of the 61st Frankfurt Book Fair right after its celebration of the 60th birthday. On behalf of the Chinese government and Chinese people, I’d like to express our sincere thanks to the German government and other people from the cultural, publishing circles and the media around the world for their support and assistance of China’s Guest of Honor events.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, related representatives of Germany, Chairman of Chinese Writers' Association Tie Ning, and writer Mo Yan respectively gave a speech at the ceremony. Ms. Merkel warmly welcomed Mr. Xi in her speech, and she also congratulated Chinese becoming the Guest of Honor of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Moreover, she wished that the book fair will definitely enhance the mutual understanding and the trust between the cultural giant China and other countries of the world.

After the ceremony, Mr. Xi Jinping visited the Chinese theme pavilion accompanied by the Minister of State Bernd Neumann. He also attended China’s Guest of Honor events. Mr. Xi lightened the background fancy lantern of the Chinese character “书” personally.

At the opening ceremony, Director-General of General Administration of Press and Publication Liu Binjie presented the Imperially Authorized Collection of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries as a gift to Dr. Elisabeth Niggemann, President of the National Library of Germany.