Chinese president's Russia visit yields concrete results (2)

HIGHLIGHTS OF PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGES

Besides increasingly interwoven economic ties and steady high-level political contacts, people-to-people exchanges between the two countries are also in full blossom, which, experts said, will yield more fruitful results and benefit the two peoples in the long run.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Year of Chinese Tourism in Russia on Friday, Xi called on the two countries to nurture tourism cooperation as "a new highlight of bilateral strategic cooperation."

Official figures showed that 343,000 trips were made from China to Russia in 2012, up 46 percent year on year.

Following the China-Russia National Year and the China-Russia Year of Language, the China-Russia Tourism Year is bound to inject new vigor into cultural exchanges between the two peoples, "an essential part" of bilateral ties, Berger said.

To further expand youth and educational exchanges, the two sides also agreed to host the China-Russia Year of Youth Exchanges in 2014 and 2015 and increase the number of exchange students between the two countries.

This shows that the two sides are eager to enhance grass-root contacts whose influence is more direct and far-reaching so as to better promote mutual trust and understanding, experts said.