(This text material comes from XINHUA. For reference only. )
BANGKOK, July 25, 2016 (Xinhua) -- The third Sino-Thai Culture and Tourism Friendship Caravan will be organized from August to September to boost cultural exchange and tourism, officials said in a press conference here on Monday.
The 5,868-km road trip is set to begin in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, in thenorth of China on August 22, after which the caravan will pass various citiesof China, Laos, Thailand and finally arrived in Thai capital Bangkok lateSeptember. An ending ceremony of the trip is set on September 29 here.
Along the trip, a number of tourism promotion activities will be organized in Zhengzhou and Changsha of China and the caravan will passattractions in Thailand's north, northeast, central and eastern regions.
70 vehicle will participate in the trip when it started as a symbolic tribute to the 70th anniversary of Thai King's accession to the throne. Some 40 peoplefrom both China and Thailand will join the whole trip.
Some media from both countries will join the trip and TAT planned to setup an online platform for people to follow the caravan, said Yuthasak Supasorn,governor of TAT.
Healso said, "Road travel is the way of the future. The vast improvement inthe Asian Highway connectivity is opening up new opportunities for reaching newdestinations and better distributing visitors."
TAT said earlier that over 50 percent of Chinese tourists visitingThailand independently right now, which is a new trend and they expect over 10million tourists from the Chinese mainland throughout this year.
Ibelieve this trip can make the diversified Chinese culture known by more andmore people in Thailand and also make Thai culture known better in China, thusto promote mutual understanding between peoples from both countries, said ChenJiang, cultural counselor of the Chinese embassy in Thailand.
The trip is organized by TAT, Chinese ministry of culture, theAssociation for international Exchange of China, the Chinese embassy inThailand and the China-Thailand Cultural Council.
TAT predicts there will be 15 million views across social media invarious Chinese cities set to be visited by the caravan.
