Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporters Zhao Chunhua, Guan Mengying) news: With a common border of 1,700 kilometers and over 2,000 years of friendly exchanges, China and Kazakhstan have a deep friendship. As an important part of the ancient Silk Road, China and Kazakhstan have always maintained friendly exchanges. Under the framework of jointly pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, China and Kazakhstan have achieved high-level cooperation and become a good example of good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation among neighboring relations.

Closer bond between the people is the key to enhancing state-to-state relations. The dividends brought by the jointly pursuing of the Belt and Road Initiative have benefited the people of China and the people of Kazakhstan and made them feel the obvious changes in their lives. Recently, the reporters of Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily interviewed locals of Kazakhstan to hear what they feel about the Belt and Road Initiative.

“I am very optimistic about the agricultural cooperation between China and Kazakhstan.”

"China and Kazakhstan have broad prospects for cooperation in the field of agriculture." said Anuar Bokenov, the director of Kazakhstan's "Mother Earth" Agricultural Cooperative proudly.

Anuar Bokenov has a deep bond with China. From 2011 to 2015, he studied at Shanghai Les Roches Jinjiang of Hotel Management, and then worked as hotel manager in China for two years. In 2017, he worked as an assistant general manager at a restaurant in Jing'an District, Shanghai, China. “I have many Chinese friends,” he said.

Photo shows Anuar Bokenov (front row center) participates in the 2023 "Bridge of the Future" China-Central Asian Youth Leaders Training and Exchange Camp in China in July 2023. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Wang Qiming)

After returning to Kazakhstan, Anuar Bokenov served as the director of Kazakhstan's "Mother Earth" Agricultural Cooperative. The cooperative was established and put into operation in 1996 with 30 members, covering an area of 2,000 hectares. A total of 1,000 hectares of it are planted with beets, soybeans, corn, and the other 1,000 hectares are used for raising cattle, horses, and other livestock so as to produce dairy and meat products.

“Beets are sold to local people, and the corn we plant is the feed for cattle, horses, and other livestock. Almost all of the soybeans we produce are exported to China,” Anuar Bokenov said. The cooperative sends hundreds of thousands of tons of soybeans to China every year, which are made into soybean oil in China’s Xinjiang and sold to various places in China.

During the years after the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward, Anuar Bokenov traveled between Kazakhstan and China, and also saw profound changes in his hometown brought by the Belt and Road Initiative. Transportation has become more convenient, and the power supply has become more stable. You can also take the “Yutong” bus from China to his hometown. There are many Chinese people in the "Mother Earth" Agricultural Cooperative.

“About 90% of the large machinery used by the cooperative is from China, such as Dongfanghong tractors, Liugong cranes,etc., and these have improved our level of agricultural mechanization," he said.

In July of this year, Anuar Bokenov participated in the 2023 "Bridge of the Future" China-Central Asian Youth Leaders Training and Exchange Camp. He visited the modern agricultural machinery produced by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Xinjiang Co., Ltd. And he was very interested. "The high level of modernization demonstrates the power of technological innovation," he said.

With the deepening of the Belt and Road Initiative, Anuar Bokenov is full of confidence in China-Kazakhstan cooperation, "I hope to find more Chinese partners and send our high-quality meat and dairy products to Chinese people."

“I want to teach more children Chinese.”

As a Chinese language teacher in a school of Kazakhstan, Dina said that since the Belt and Road Initiative was initiated in 2013, more and more students have been learning Chinese, and learners are also getting younger and younger. “There are some children who have started to learn Chinese since the 4th grade.”

Dina is a beneficiary of the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2010, she studied at Kazakhstan Foreign Languages and Vocational University and came to Changji University in Xinjiang for a semester of Chinese language training as part of a youth exchange program. She was accompanied by 11 students from different schools and educational institutions in Kazakhstan.

Photo shows Dina (third from left) participates in the 2023 training course for Chinese language teachers in Russia and Central Asian countries at Xinjiang University in August 2023. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Zhao Chunhua)

For the first time greeting her classmates in Xinjiang, Dina, who already had basic Chinese communication skills, amazed everyone with her fluent Chinese. She went to eat Xinjiang fried rice-flour noodles with her classmates. She had a hard time adapting at first, but everything went great later.

In 2020, Dina pursued a master's degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages at Lanzhou University, gaining a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture. After returning to Kazakhstan, she began to consciously add knowledge in traditional Chinese culture into her daily Chinese teaching.

“In the Spring Festival, our teachers and students would wear Hanfu (the traditional costume of the Han Chinese ethnicity) for performances. We also learned dances such as Yangko dance and Fan dance, and Chinese folk songs such as "Jasmine Flower", which are also very popular among children.” Dina said, “Thanks to an online shopping app "Buy Together", we can buy props, clothing, and other items without going to China.”

When she first came to Xinjiang, China, Dina left at 7 am and arrived at the Changji University the next day. In July 2023, Dina and her colleagues came to Xinjiang University to attend the 2023 training class for Chinese teachers from Russia and Central Asian countries. It only took 4 hours from Almaty to Horgos Port by long-distance bus, which surprised her.

“Nowadays, China provides more and more learning opportunities for young people in Kazakhstan. I want to take the children to learn Chinese well and pass down the friendship between China and Kazakhstan from generation to generation, "said Dina.

“We see more business opportunities.”

The 2023 (China) Eurasia Commodity and Trade Expo was held in August. Honey, vegetable oil, jam, meat products, and other products at the Kazakhstan pavilion were highly favored by people. "A total of more than 40 Kazakhstan companies participated in this expo, which was also the largest exhibition for us," Hadbek Galen, head of Kazakhstan pavilion communicated with reporters in fluent Chinese.

In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the initiative of jointly pursuing the Silk Road Economic Belt at Nazarbayev University, and Hadbek was deeply impressed. That year, he traveled to Donghua University in Shanghai for postgraduate studies, and before that, he learned Chinese by himself in order to better communicate with people.

Later, Hadbek returned to Kazakhstan and founded a travel agency specializing in cross-border travel between China and Kazakhstan. Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was initiated in 2013, China and Kazakhstan have increasingly frequent economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people exchanges, and his travel agency has also become better and better.

In recent years, China and Kazakhstan have frequently held exhibitions and other activities. Hadbek has expanded his business scope, organized enterprises to participate in various kinds of exhibitions and traveled between China and Kazakhstan more than ten times a year. He has participated in China International Import Expo, China-Eurasian Expo, Kazakhstan-China Commodity Exhibition, and so on.

Hadbek also participated in the China-Central Asia Summit held in May this year. He said that this summit has brought China and Kazakhstan with more frequent exchanges between governments, enterprises, and people, and also allowed enterprises to find more business opportunities. At the 18th Kazakhstan-China Commodity Exhibition held in July this year, I met a friend I had in Xi’an again. When we met, we hugged like old friends that had not seen each other for a long time.”

In Kazakhstan, Hadbek often goes to Chinese restaurants with his friends and to Chinese medicine clinics for physical therapy. He said that the changes brought by the Belt and Road Initiative can be seen in the daily lives of people.

Hadbek is very optimistic about the future of China and Kazakhstan. When he participated in this Commodity and Trade Expo, he also took his young children to Xinjiang, China. “I hope he can learn Chinese culture from a young age and become a builder and a promoter of friendly relations between China and Kazakhstan when he grows up, "he said.

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