On the afternoon of 10th December, 2024, Wang Suxian Village, Sanhehu Town, Bincheng District, Binzhou City, was immersed in a warm atmosphere of cultural collision: a group of international students from Nepal and a group of photographers from Nepal met in this beautiful village. Strange country, similar faces, familiar language, so that this encounter seems to be a long-distance date.

It was the second day of ‘Flying over the Himalaya - Nepal/Binzhou Culture Week’, members of Nepal Photographers Association had been particularly curious and eager to know the living and learning experience of these Nepalese young people in Binzhou, while the international students were eager to feel the warmth and greetings from their compatriots. At this moment, the distance and longing turned into nothing in the laughter, replaced by a strong sense of nostalgia and eager anticipation of cultural exchanges.

The village surrounded by farmland, simple and enthusiastic villagers, and clean and tidy roads formed a quiet and peaceful picture of the countryside. The international students enthusiastically introduced their study and life in China to their compatriots with excitement and pride in their eyes. They told how they gradually improved their Chinese language skills with the help of their Chinese teachers and classmates, and how they adapted to and fell in love with life here. The members of the Photographers' Association, on the other hand, did not mince words with their compliments, letting the international students feel the encouragement and expectation from their faraway hometown.

In the village's handicraft workshop, the Nepalese friends were amazed by the demonstration of two traditional handicrafts, namely, gourd branding and plant topiaries. Afterwards, they tried their hands on branding words and patterns on gourds to express their good wishes, and top-dyeing fresh plants to make one-of-a-kind exquisite handbags. Although various cultures share a common pursuit of nature and beauty, they have different ways of expression, and these differences are precisely the key to promoting cultural exchanges to a deeper development. The mutual fusion and collision of cultures made the activity site overflowing with touching, containing feelings and filled with joy.

Cheerful Nepalese music played, Nepalese friends have danced Nepalese dance, dance step playful and agile, the Chinese photographers present, BZPT teachers and villagers joined the ranks of the dance, every action, every note conveys the unique flavour of Nepalese culture, as if to bring everyone present to the mysterious and beautiful Himalayan country. Immediately after, Chinese music was played, Nepalese friends quickly integrated into it, combining the elements of Nepalese dance with the rhythm of Chinese music skilfully, and in this way, a small dance set off a cultural collision between China and Nepal.

The busiest people in the whole activity are the members of Nepal Photographers Association and Binzhou Photographers Association, who have been moving their feet quickly and pressing the shutter, recording every wonderful moment with the lens and keeping these unforgettable memories with the photos, so that the people of the two countries don't have to cross the thousands of mountains and rivers to listen to each other, understand each other and appreciate each other, and jointly write this moving story of transnational friendship and cultural exchange. Through the exhibition in the two countries, the people of the two countries can listen to and appreciate each other without crossing thousands of mountains and rivers, and write this touching story of transnational friendship and cultural exchange together.

With the gradual progress of the follow-up activities of the Cultural Week, we are jointly looking forward to more wonderful moments of cultural exchange and collision. It is believed that with the joint efforts of both sides, the flower of friendship between China and Nepal will bloom more splendidly and colourfully in the soil of cultural fusion and bear more fruitful fruits.