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Screen View Ceremony of ABC7 'Discover Chongqing: China's City Of Opportunity'

The screen view ceremony: Discover Chongqing: China's City of Opportunity was hosted by Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA) at Grand Hyatt hotel in New York on November 20th. There were dozens of representatives from both the Chinese and American tourism and media industries attend the event. They discussed about the collaboration opportunities in tourism industry between Chongqing and New York. During Chinese President Xi 's visit to the States, a TV program called Discover Chongqing: China's City of Opportunity which is co-produced by SAFA and ABC, was released. Chongqing became very popular after the release on ABC 7. Due to the power of social media sharing, "visiting Chongqing" became a trending topic in both China and the U.S.

The event was hosted by Li Li, the Executive Vice President of SAFA. The attendees included Pan Xiaopeng, Deputy Director of China National Tourist New York Office; Simone Bassous, Executive Director New York Chapter Pacific Asia Travel Association, and other representatives from New York tourism industry. The guests were amazed by the natural scenery and culture of Chongqing in the movie, which cultivated their interests in visiting Chongqing, the city of opportunity.

Bassous stated, "Couple years ago, I've been to the Dazu Stone cave that was featured in the movie, and then I took a luxury cruise to see the beautiful scenery over Yangtse River. It was such an unforgettable experience. This film fully expresses the spirit of an ancient city with highly modernized urban structure, as well as the fascinating natural scenery and the incredible sound from the city of mountains. I feel like I can even smell the super tasting Chongqing hotpot!" She also realized that there are many places in Chongqing that she hasn't visited yet and would like to explore next time. She suggested that Chongqing should promote its tourism by leveraging the cruise on Yangtse River, “I believe it will be a sweet spot for the tourists as Americans would love to visit Yangtse River, and people will get to know Chongqing better because of Yangtse River."

Li Li said, "It was our pleasure to invite so many experts from American tourism Industry, and we hope to discuss more about the benefits of taking mutual advantages and collaborations on tourism marketing in the following US-China Tourism Year. For example, we will produce more travel TV series not only promoting the major cities, but also showing the natural sceneries especially in low profile places."

This successful event also earned the support from the U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the member of Congress Joseph Crowley. They spoke highly of the series of events that were hosted by SAFA have greatly enhanced US-China relations and cultural exchange between the two countries. They also recognized the great contributions and hard works that Jieming Weng, the Executive Vice-Mayor of Chongqing Municipal Government, Jialing Tan, the Deputy Mayor of Chongqing Municipal Government and other experts have made.

Simone Bassous, Executive Director New York Chapter Pacific Asia Travel Association, sharing her thought about ChongQing tourism opportunity to media.
 
(Left) Pan Xiaopeng, deputy director of China National Tourist Office in New York(Right) Event host Li Li, Executive Vice President of Sino-American Friendship Association
 
American tourism industry representatives sharing their opinions