(July 12th, 2012)

Your Excellency Mr. Li Baodong, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations,

Your Excellency Mr. He Guangwei, Member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference,

Ladies and gentlemen,

      Good evening.

      It is my great pleasure to attend the Shaanxi Gourmet Gala and join you in taking a rare glimpse into Shaanxi's landscape and culture and trying its delicious local food.

      Mr. Dong Xianmin's remarks just now gave us a general idea of what Shaanxi is like. As a Chinese saying goes, go to Shanghai and you will find a 100-year-old China; go to Beijing and you will find a 1000-year-old China; And go to Shaanxi and you will find a 3000-year-old China. Shaanxi is the cradle of China with profound historical and cultural heritage, and it is, by any means, on your travel list.

      Active people-to-people exchanges are the foundation of China-US cooperative partnership and tourism is an important means to promote those exchanges. I hope that we can have more mutual visits between our two countries for the closer mutual understanding and friendship.

      Recently, a TV documentary entitled Tasting China has been quite popular among the Chinese viewers. Some of the mouth-watering delicacies in the documentary are from Shaanxi, and we are going to try some later. So it is better for me to stop here and not keep you away from tasting the delicious food.

      Thank you and have a pleasant evening.