The Second Silk Road International Arts Festival began in Xi'an earlier this month, with monthlong exhibitions, dramas, dances and concerts planned by visiting artists and officials from countries that shared trade and cultural links with China along a network of overland and marine routes in ancient times.

This year, the festival that opened on Sept 7 in the capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province features artists and scholars from 62 countries and regions. In 2014, artists from some 30 countries attended the first edition of the cultural event.

Culture Minister Luo Shugang, who was also present at the opening this year, called the festival a "cultural project of China's Belt and Road Initiative", which will "drive the understanding of both Chinese culture and those of nations on the Silk Road".