Editor's note: Sudeshna Sarkar, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a Beijing-based journalist and editor of a dozen books on China's culture, economy and political system. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Phewa Lake in central Nepal, the second largest freshwater body in the Himalayan republic, may be likened to West Lake in eastern China due to its popularity as a scenic and cultural destination. This year, it has a new dimension – cross-border cultural cooperation.

"Let's row at the Phewa Lake," says the pinned tweet on the Twitter account of Chen Song, the Chinese ambassador to Nepal. As the Dragon Boat Festival, the traditional Chinese commemoration of an ancient poet, is celebrated on different continents, the China-Nepal Friendship Dragon Boat Race Festival will debut in Nepal on June 23 with teams from China, Nepal and Singapore taking part.

The event is organized to enhance cultural exchanges, deepen friendship and promote the exchange of civilization and cultures.

Modern China has a pragmatic definition of civilization and culture. At a recent symposium on cultural inheritance and development, experts defined civilization and culture as not being "solid sculptures," that is, rigid, but flexible like "flowing water" that must be "closely integrated with the practical needs of reality and the social system."

The Dragon Boat Festival in Nepal will serve a very practical need. A nation whose mainstay is tourism, Nepal earned over $240 million in foreign currency from tourism in the financial year 2022-23. This year, as the South Asian country kicks off its Tourism Decade 2023-2033, the goal is much higher and the festival is a novel package to attract visitors.

China was the biggest source of outbound tourists globally before the pandemic, with 170 million trips, bringing in $253 billion for the global economy in 2019. In 2018, Chinese tourists to Nepal ranked second highest in number as Nepal started offering free visas to Chinese tourists. With the Chinese venturing out this year once again after COVID-19 restrictions ended, Nepal is seeking more visitors from its northern neighbor.

Besides tourism, the China-Nepal relationship goes way back into history. Nepali historians write about the matrimonial alliance formed in the 7th century when the Nepali royal family married Princess Bhrikuti to the Tibetan local leader Songtsen Gampo. She took skilled Nepali artisans with her and they built temples and other edifices, influencing the local architecture. Buddhist monks from Nepal went to China and vice versa, creating further exchanges.

One of Nepal's most loved classics, Muna Madan published in 1936, is about a Nepali heading for Lhasa to make his fortune there, falling ill and being rescued by kindhearted Tibetans.

According to Chinese Customs data, China's Xizang Autonomous Region saw its foreign trade grow by 14.6 percent year on year to 4.6 billion yuan ($678.9 million) in 2022, of which its imports and exports from and to Nepal reached 1.56 billion yuan ($220 million), making Nepal its largest trading partner. Significantly, Nepal is the only country to have a consulate in Lhasa, the capital of China's Xizang Autonomous Region. 

While China's land area is more than 60 times that of Nepal, the bilateral relationship is described as a "model of good neighborliness between a small and a large country with different political systems."

The importance China gives to all the countries it has diplomatic ties with, irrespective of their size, was also reflected at the 2023 Beijing International Book Fair this month. It was reportedly announced that 2,900 Chinese works have been translated into foreign languages, including Nepali. The multilingual book series published by China Social Sciences Press on studies on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era also includes a Nepali edition.

On June 16, when the 100-day countdown began to the 19th Asian Games, which will be hosted by Hangzhou in eastern China, the Nepal Olympic Committee and National Sports Council organized a celebratory event in the capital Kathmandu. Also, Nepal continues to support China at various international organizations, including the United Nations.

As someone who has lived and worked in both Nepal and China for over a decade, it is encouraging to see that China-Nepal relationship continues to remain stable and flourish.

China-Nepal ties have remained unruffled due to the Chinese policy that allows more space in the relationship, emphasizing inclusiveness and peace as the fundamental characteristics of the Chinese civilization.

According to Xi, the inclusiveness of the Chinese civilization determines the orientation of China's exchanges with others and the openness of the Chinese culture to embrace world civilizations.

And its peaceful nature determines that China will not impose its own values and political system on others, that it will cooperate and not confront, and will never engage in a small circle of "parties agreeing to defeat differences."

Hopefully, the Dragon Boat Festival would be a good way to demonstrate inclusivity and cultural integration.

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