On February 14, 2007, China and India kicked off the Year of Friendship through Tourism in the Indian capital of New Delhi. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, as well as Indian Minister of Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni attended the ceremony.

To hold the "China-India Year of Friendship through Tourism" is an important consensus reached by the leaders of both sides, as well as one of the key efforts to deepen the strategic and cooperative partnership, said Li Zhaoxing when addressing the ceremony. The development of tourism will help people know more about each other, sustain the traditional friendship and enhance interactions between two civilizations, he said.

Being the countries with splendid culture and rich tourism resources, China and India share a sound basis to develop cooperation in tourism and other cultural fields, said Li.   "Last year about 450,000 Chinese and Indians visited each other's countries," Li said.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Mukherjee said the two great ancient civilizations share a time-honored history of exchanges with the two countries once closely linked by the ancient Silk Road. Through tourism people of the two countries will rediscover each other's culture and traditional connection, which is to improve the bilateral ties, he said. India welcomes more and more Chinese tourists, said Mukherjee.

The two countries officially released a joint logo for the China-India Year of Friendship through Tourism at the opening ceremony, which is made up of Chinese landmark the Great Wall and India's Taj Mahal as well as the two national flags.

During the China-India Year of Friendship through Tourism, the two sides will launch a series of activities to improve their tourism exchanges, including exchanges of visits of tourism officials and industry people between the two countries, which will help them learn about each other's tourism industry and market, said Ambika Soni, Indian Minister of Tourism and Culture. Currently 7,000,000 Indians go abroad every year and those who wish to go to China not only visit the Great Wall, but also discover other interesting tourist destinations, he said.

According to the agreement reached when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited India last November, China will set up a tourism office in India while India will open the same office in China.  The Indian government has started a range of initiatives to promote India among Chinese tourists, including launching introduction of India's tourist destinations in Chinese on its official website and in CDs as well as Indian tourist maps in Chinese.