Tea, tunes and ties: China-Germany cultural exchanges flourish

Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, met with Elke Budenbender, wife of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for a tea reception in Beijing on Friday, as the German president is on a state visit to China from October 27 to October 31.

Recalling her trip to Germany alongside President Xi in 2017, Peng spoke warmly of the friendship between the two countries and praised Budenbender's long-standing dedication to protecting the rights and interests of women and children.

The two watched a short film highlighting the vibrant cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two nations.

Peng said that the two countries enjoy rich and diverse cooperation in areas including education and culture. She expressed the hope that the Chinese and German people will keep up their frequent exchanges, deepen mutual understanding and forge closer bonds of friendship.

For her part, Budenbender thanked Peng for her warm hospitality and spoke highly of Peng's contributions to cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. She said she stands ready to contribute to stronger cooperation in relevant fields and deeper friendship between the two peoples.

China-Germany cultural exchanges

China-Germany cultural exchange has grown into a rich, interlocking fabric woven through language, festivals, arts, tourism, education and more.

The Leibniz Confucius Institute in Hanover runs summer camps, remote language-partner programs and speech contests, drawing a growing number of German students to China. The Bonn-based Burg Chinese Chorus, meanwhile, brought 80 students and teachers to Yunnan, where they sang around a campfire at the Yi Torch Festival, learning more than 60 Chinese songs and experiencing local culture firsthand.

Festivals and arts carry language learning into shared public experience. Berlin's Red Town Hall has hosted the "Happy Chinese New Year" gala for 12 consecutive years, with 300 guests watching dance, folk music and martial arts. Frankfurt's Spring Festival temple fair brought Chaoshan Yingge dance and Ansai waist drums to German streets. In Duisburg, the China Festival paired concerts and film screenings with tai chi and pop-electronic music, while a Chengdu exhibition placed German and Chinese artists in the same frame to explore technology and perception.

Tourism links are being cultivated in parallel. Gansu's cultural tourism roadshow in Berlin drew more than 40 German travel industry representatives, and one German agent had already organized 38 camper vans from Türkiye to China. China's visa-free policy for German citizens, extended through 2026, has made two-way travel markedly easier.

The exchange is no longer a series of isolated events but a connected ecosystem – institutional, creative and everyday – that gives "rich and diverse" a concrete meaning.