Twenty journalists from 11 major South Korean and Japanese media outlets visited Weifang in Shangdong province on June 26 to report on its development.

The four-day event was co-sponsored by China Daily and the Weifang municipal government and was aimed at promoting trilateral cooperation in economic and cultural fields.

The journalists travelled to the city's high-tech district, the bonded area and Weifang Binhai Economic-Technological Development Area to discover how the city has modernized.

They also took a tour to its affiliated county-level historical cities including Qingzhou and Zhucheng, to learn about local intangible culture heritages.

"It is the first time that I visited Weifang and I am deeply impressed by the city's kite industry and Qingzhou's ancient city and museum" said Amano Sonoko from the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun. He also mentioned that the government's practice in protecting intangible culture heritages is an example for others.

Kang Bing(R),deputy editor chief of China Daily and Ding Hanbang(L),vice minister of the Weifang municipal publicity department jointly?display a piece of traditional New Year's?Painting at the openning ceremony of "Discover Weifang" fact-finding activity. [Photo by Wang Qian/chinadaily.com.cn]

Kang Bing, deputy editor chief of China Daily delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the event and said that this activity is part of China Daily's attempts to introduce China's beautiful resources to the world. He added that the activity would serve as a bridge for mutual cooperation between Weifang, Japan and South Korea in areas of culture, ecology and tourism.

Ding Hanbang, vice minister of the Weifang municipal publicity department, said that Weifang had witnessed a rapid progress in facilitating economic and cultural exchanges between Japan and South Korea, ranking second and third place in the city's import and export trade volume in 2015.

In september this year, Weifang will hold the 2nd China, Japan and ROK Industries Expo to enhance China's Belt and Road Initiatives and develop a China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement.