by Cheng Xizhong

 

According to a report by Pakistani media "Dawn" on February 4, Lahore has been declared "City of Literature" – the first place in the country to have been conferred this title by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

 

A ceremony was held at Alhamra Art Center’s Burney Garden where UNESCO Director Patricia Mcphillips and Punjab government officials spoke about the importance of Lahore as a center of learning and conviviality. 

 

Patricia Mcphillips said that Lahore was one of the greatest cities with a rich cultural heritage. “Lahore has a rich vibrant culture and is now in the network of cities recognized by UNESCO for its literary status,” she added.

 

Lahore Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghuman said at the ceremony that Pakistan Government would celebrate 2021 as the year of literary activities and all cultural and literary institutions would hold events. He said Urdu Bazaar would be decorated and literary conferences would be held.

 

As a famous city with thousands of years of history, Lahore has its own proud capital. It used to be the capital of the Mughal Dynasty. With hundreds of years of vicissitudes, it has accumulated a bright and profound cultural heritage, known as the "soul of Pakistan". A large number of elaborate architectures left by the Mughal Dynasty still show the splendid civilization of the past and fascinate visitors. The Badshahi Mosque is magnificent. Whenever you visit it, it has a variety of majestic features, rendering the style of Islamic architecture incisively and vividly.

 

When you walk beside the majestic and magnificent Lahore Fort, you will feel that the ancient city wall stretches out, and every red brick and stone seems to be describing the history of time to you. On the moonlit night, when you sit by the fountain of the Shalimar Garden and look at the pavilions deliberately built with marble, you will see the scene of the multi-column fountains spewing green and white gemstones, and you will also sincerely sigh for the industrious wisdom and ingenuity of the ancient Pakistani working people. 

 

Many celebrities who visit Lahore like to gather in teahouses. They chat, write and exchange ideas here. Sometimes, a pot of tea can trigger a debate and enlighten a collision of thinking. When they are tired of walking in the street, they sit down in a teahouse, look at the pictures of cultural celebrities drinking tea on the walls of the teahouse, listen to the pleasant chat of the guests around them, and deeply feel the cultural influences of "tea and politics" with the elegant fragrance of tea. Sometimes, a casual chat with a stranger can lead to an unknown past in Pakistan, or a touching story, which also adds a lot of color to life.

 

To bid farewell to the elegant teahouse, you may turn your eyes to a bazaar, which offers a rich supply of different commodities. All kinds of clothing, jewelry and handicrafts are permeated with local ethnic customs, which can be enjoyed by outsiders for a long time. Of course, there are also busy shopping malls in Lahore, but the good taste of life is often hidden in small shops in bazaars. Only after careful exploration, can we find something satisfying. Walking in a bazaar, you can keep quiet in the noise, and have a dialogue with your heart in the process of repeated selection and appreciation.

 

As night falls, the streets of Lahore are still full of traffic. The neon of the city is reflected in the moat of Lahore, and the ancient charm and modern flavor are suddenly integrated. The moat is like the Milky Way. The cultural image of Lahore turns into a little halo, just like a star, dotted with different artistic conceptions. When you gaze at it, you can see the figure of the Mughal Dynasty, and the millennium time reappears vaguely, which makes people feel more and more the charm of Lahore and the mystery hidden in the history. Unconsciously, you are deeply intoxicated in the night.

 

Some people say that the unique temperament of Lahore is not as beautiful as the capital of Islamabad, nor as lively as the southern port city of Karachi, but it has the magic that can impact the soul. The encounter with Lahore is a special way of life, which makes people gradually enter the spiritual home that Pakistanis are proud of.

 

People here pay more attention to taste the ancient charm from the history, edify the temperament from the art, and explore the beauty from the details. No matter how impetuous and noisy the outside world is, people can live poetically in the cultural heritage, which is perhaps the most valuable and charming attraction in Lahore.

 

Pakistan, like China, has a long history of civilization. With the story of Lahore, now I am thinking that with the continuous progress of the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, if we simultaneously develop an eternal Pak-China cultural corridor and learn from each other's cultural traditions, we can link the people of the two nations more closely, thus building a community of common destiny between China and Pakistan.