Welcome Letter from Vice Mayer of Beijing, Mr. Wei Lu.

The “2013 Beijing International Screenwriting Competition,” with the theme “Tale of Beijing” as launched on March 4, 2013,is an unprecedented experiment and a significant event aimed at stimulating cultural communication between the US and China. I am honored to have been invited as the Honorary President of the Organization Committee and would like to express my warmest welcome to all participants and best wishes for success.

Beijing has a history of over 3,000 years, with more than 800 years as the national capital. It has been famed as a center of civilization from ancient times through the present, and features many cultural heritage sites of world renown. In recent years, Beijing has demonstrated her beauty, hospitality, and cultural charm by hosting large international events including the 29th Summer Olympic Games. Ancient and modern at the same time, Beijing welcomes and attracts people from all walks of life. Here, you may enjoy an international as well as Chinese vision, and communicate with ancient sages while looking into the future.

We hope that you will discover with your eyes, explore with your imagination, and depict with your own language a unique vision of Beijing. We believe that your entries will present the natural beauty and cultural charm of this colorful city to more people worldwide.

We also believe that you will be pleasantly surprised at what you discover in Beijing.  As Lin Yutang, a Chinese writer and two-time nominee of the Nobel Prize for Literature, once said, “Almost all who have visited Peking have come to love it, … its elusive charm being as inescapable as it is difficult to analyze and describe.” We sincerely hope that you will be able to outdo Mr. Lin Yutang, who wrote about Beijing decades ago. We also hope, of course, you will fall in love with Beijing through your new discoveries.

Good luck to you all!

Wei Lu, Vice-Mayor of Beijing