'21st Century Cup' foreign visitors enjoy Hangzhou

When Indonesian Altira Rainahsa Hakim studied Chinese in Beijing two years ago, she learned a Chinese adage: "Up above there is paradise, down here, there are Suzhou and Hangzhou."

But it's only during this weekend that Hakim got the chance to visit Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. She was attending The Belt and Road Youth English Speaking Competition and China Daily "21st Century Cup" International English Speaking Competition, held in the paradisal city in East China on Saturday and Sunday.

"Beautiful!" said Hakim, who was touring the city's Xixi Wetland Park on a boat alongside other contestants from 30 countries and regions during their free time.

For Hungarian contestant Kiraly Marton, the tidy gardens and clean environment amazed him. "This is my first time anywhere outside of Europe. It's really a great experience," he said, adding that he found China to be more organized than he expected.

The tea culture and West Lake also impressed the foreign contestants during the cultural tour to the China National Tea Museum and the renowned lake - also a cultural symbol for Hangzhou.

You Chinkheng, a Cambodian student who had come to Hangzhou two years ago on an exchange with Zhejiang University, said he did not have enough time to immerse himself in the rich culture and green environment of the city.

Besides cultural and natural sites, Christian Boahen Owusu, a contestant from Ghana, said the headquarters of private e-commerce giant Alibaba Group in the city is what he has always wanted to visit.

"I knew the city had beautiful scenery and strong IT industry, and today I got to see it with my own eyes," Owusu said.

Hangzhou has put innovation at core of its future development, as stated in the city government work report in January.

It said the city will strive for quality development of the digital economy, led by the industries of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data, and will help accelerate new growing points such as 5G communication technology and internet-of-things. Building the pilot zone for an electronic world trade platform is also a focus of the city to strengthen its leading role in e-commerce.

Papushkin Arkadii, an Ukrainian student who majored in Asian Studies, said he wanted to study Chinese here and do international trade with China in the future.

"This is a great chance for me to explore more of the country, and meet new friends of different countries," he said.