Reinvent The Toilet Challenge (RTTC)---China Grant Launch Conference was held at the CPAFFC on 22th August. This conference is jointly hosted by CPAFFC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation(BMGF), University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), and the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development (CFFPD). CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin spoke at the conference. She said that toilets not only affect our life quality, but decide the existence and development of the human being. Like other developing country in the world, China encounters such challenges as  the lack of sanitary facilities, environmental pollution, etc. It is imperative to innovate technologies, and invent sanitary systems which are easy to use and affordable to developing countries. She encouraged Chinese enterprises, research institutes, and NGOs to work together for his endeavor. Prof. Michael Hoffmann from California Institute of Technology, the top winner of the first RTTC, demonstrated his design on toilets. More than 120 people from businesses, academic institutes and media attended this conference. Representatives from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation introduced the rules and procedures of the contest. The winner will receive financial support from the BMGF on turning the design into real products.  

On August 16, CPAFFC Vice President Li Jianping met with Mr. Karl Heinz Gass, who was awarded the title of Friendship Ambassador. Mr. Gass was engaged in friendship-to-China work for 30 years. He has been to China over 260 times and made great efforts for the cultural, economic, educational cooperation between China and Germany, as well as established deep friendship with the Chinese people. This visit in China of Mr. Gass was to introduce his autobiography Between Donar and Dragon. This autobiography was published by World Knowledge Press and sponsored by BEIJING QL-ART PRINTING CO.,LTD.. Mr. Wang Haiying, the deputy general manger of BEIJING QL-ART PRINTING CO.,LTD. was present at the meeting. Vice President Li Jianping highly praised Mr. Gass’s insistent work on friendship to China and appreciated the generous sponsorship of BEIJING QL-ART PRINTING CO.,LTD..

Jointly sponsored by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the Henan Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Anyang Municipal People’s Government, and the National Museum of Chinese Characters, the opening ceremony of Chinese Characters Exhibition in Beijing and launching of world tour was held on August 13, 2013, at the Capital Museum. The CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin, Vice President Xie Yuan, heads of relevant departments of Henan provincial government and Anyang municipal government, representatives from cultural and academic circles, ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Peru, and Uzbekistan, as well as diplomats from embassies of the U.S., Canada, France, ROK, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Nepal, totaling about 100 people, attended the event. Vice President Xie Yuan delivered a speech. President Li Xiaolin declared the opening of the exhibition after which she joined the ribbon cutting with guests, and visited the exhibition with ambassadors foreign diplomats. The Chinese Characters Exhibition aims to present a full view of the long history of Chinese characters, with comprehensive documents, photos and replicas of prescious historic relics. The exhibition provides multiple perspectives to understand the origin, the evolvement, and the spread of Chinese characters and the unique art based on it. It is expected that various cultural and art exchanges will be carried out with all different countries alongside the tour of exhibition, so as to introduce the traditional and vigourous Chinese culture to the world. On the occasion, Director General of the Cultural Exchange Departmeng of the CPAFFC Mr. Ma Xiaoming and Councilor of the Embassy of Uzbekistan Mr. Asadov Botirjon signed the letter of intent on exhibition cooperation. The Chinese Characters Exhibtion will go to Canada, Uzbekistan and Nepal by the end of this year, and a series of cultural exchange events including academic seminars will be held during the exhibition.

At the Invitation of Mr. Mambe, Governor of Abidjan District of Cote D’ivoire, Mr. Abo, President of Togo-China Friendship Association and Mr. Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, President of Ghana-China Friendship Association, the goodwill delegation led by Vice President Feng Zuoku paid a visit to the three countries from Aug. 1 to 11, 2013. In Cote D’ivoire, the delegation called upon Premier Daniel DUNCAN and Governor Mambe, and attended two meetings, one hosted by the Premier with the company of Minister of Commerce, Handicraft Industry and Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises and several other ministers; the other one with the local entrepreneurs. In Togo, the delegation called upon Former Premier Mr. Kojo, paid a visit to the Municipal Government of Lome, the Togolese Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Togolese National Council of Employers and the Lome Port, and undertook a work meet with Togo-China Friendship Association. In Ghana, the delegation met with 6 ministers of the cabinet, e.g. Minister of Trade and Industry Mr. Iddrisu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Mr. Opong-fosu, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Mme. Ofosu-Agyare. The delegation also attended a reception for celebrating the China-Ghana Friendship Day and took a field study on the market development project in Accra.   

On August 8th, Vice President Xie Yuan met with Ms. Mary Kane, President of U.S. Sister Cities International. Vice President Xie and Ms. Kane discussed in detail on the preparation work for the China-US Sister Cities Conference which will be jointly hosted by CPAFFC and SCI in Washington D.C. in March 2014.

The CPAFFC, together with the China National Committee for the Care of Children (CNCCC), hosted the 1st China-ASEAN Youth Cultural Exchange Festival (CAYCEF) in Beijing from August 1st to 6th,, 2013. Altogether 250 young delegates participated in the 1st CAYCEF from 20 provinces or cities in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan as well as from 10 ASEAN countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  H.E. Mme Gu Xiulian (President of China-ASEAN Association and Director of CNCCC), Mr. Xie Yuan (Vice President of CPAFFC), Mr. Liu Fengyan, Mrs. Liu Yazhi, Mrs. Liu Xiaolian, Mr. Min Zhenhuan (Executive Deputy Directors of CNCCC), H.E. Mme. Magdalene Teo (Ambassador of Brunei to China), H.E. Mr. Somdy Bounkhoum (Ambassador of the Laos to China), H.E. Mme. Erlinda Basilio (Ambassador of the Philippines to China) and other Chinese and international guests attended the major events of the Festival. The delegates visited the National Museum, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the National Stadium(Bird Nest), the National Aquatics Center(Water Cute), the Beijing Zoo and the Planetarium Museum respectively. They learned the Chinese calligraphy and painted the scrolls on the topics of international friendship and the China-ASEAN family. On the opening and closing ceremonies and especially the gala night of the Festival, the youngsters conducted series of colorful performances with their national traditions and ethnic features and exchanged their ideas and thoughts as well.

Xie Yuan, vice president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries(CPAFFC) met with Allan Flores,Tourism Minister of Costa Rica and his delegation on August,1. Vice president Xie Yuan expressed sincere welcome to Minister Allan Flores and his delegation and introduced to them the fourth nongovernmental and friendly forum between China and Latin America and Caribbean, which will be held in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Xie also said that although the two countries were far away from each other, the friendship between the two countries had a long history, and the Chinese people always had a friendly feeling for Costa Rican people. He also introduced the communication and exchanges of friendship cities between the two countries to them and expected that the two sides would further achieve the pragmatic cooperation on the friendship cities, so as to drive the bilateral development of tourism. Minister Allan Flores thanked the CPAFFC for making contribution and efforts for the friendship between Costa Rica and China. He said that the bilateral development of tourism not only promoted the economy development, but also built the friendship platform for the people of two countries. He hoped that the nongovernmental and friendly forum between China and Latin America in September would provide us with a new opportunity to strengthen pragmatic cooperation and promote the further development between Costa Rica and China. H.E.Mr.Marco Vinicio Ruiz, the ambassador to China and Ana Cristina Jenkins, vice minister of the Ministry of transportation attended the meeting.

  Vice President Feng Zuoku met with H.E. Mr. Victor Foh, the new Ambassador of the Republic of Sierra Leone to China, on July 29, 2013. Vice President Feng expressed his congratulations to H.E. Ambassador Victor Foh. He hoped during the new Ambassador’s term the CPAFFC and the Sierra Leonean Embassy in China would strengthen their cooperation, jointly promote the people-to-people contacts and local government exchanges between China and Sierra Leone, so as to consolidate and develop the friendship between the two countries. H.E. Ambassador Victor Foh thanked Vice President Feng for meeting with him, and said before his appointment as Ambassador to China he had been Secretary General for the All Peoples Congress party for eight years. He was also a member of the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Association. He hoped to maintain close contact with the CPAFFC, strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between the two friendship associations, and further promote Sierra Leone-China relationship.  

The departure ceremony and press conference of  China International Friendship Volunteer Program sponsored by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and organized by Zhongxie Human Resource Consulting Center( Zhongxie HR) was held in Beijing on July 18,2013. Xie Yuan, the vice president of the CPAFFC, Guo quansheng, the director of the Zhongxie HR, and the representatives from Hanban Confucius Institute Headquarters and the press, over 50 persons attended the activity. Vice president Xie Yuan announced in his speech that the first group of China international friendship volunteers would set out for Fiji and Guatemala to render the international voluntary services. He said the CPAFFC officially set up China International Friendship Volunteer Program in 2012 aiming for better excavating the resources of the domestic people-to-people diplomacy and coordinating with the "walk out" strategy, to publicize the idea of  China’s peaceful development and assist the target region to achieve progress in various causes. He hoped the volunteers work well on the ground and send friendship and best wishes from the Chinese people to the foreign countries, as well as make friends for our country in order that more people would understand China, be interested in the Chinese culture and support the friendship to China. With the joint efforts in many ways, the CPAFFC chose Fiji and Guatemala as the first countries to receive the China international friendship volunteers. The volunteers in Fiji will carry out about 3 months’ volunteer activities to prepare for China-Fiji Economic and Trading Seminar which will be held in Fiji in early next year and assist to collect trading and economic investment cooperation programs for China and Fiji. In order to  promote the communication in education and culture between the both sides,  with the assistance of Hunan Education Association for International Exchange, two teachers were selected and sent to Guatemala at the invitation of the Guatemala-China Friendship Association, to teach Chinese in four local educational institutes for one year. Moreover, in order to ensure the teaching quality of Chinese course and publicize the Chinese culture, the CPAFFC presented about RMB 50 thousand Yuan teaching books to the Guatemala-China Friendship Association, so that more enthusiasts for Chinese would benefit from these activities.  On the departure ceremony, the CPAFFC and Zhongxie HR presented the Fiji-China Friendship Association and Guatemala-China Friendship Association respectively with the Chinese works of calligraphy which would be handed on by the volunteers. Program of sending volunteers to provide services abroad is the important move of the CPAFFC adhering the idea of Friendship, Peace, Cooperation and Development and exploring new methods for works of foreign assistance. It will further expand the cooperation and enhance the vitality of friendship between China and foreign countries.

On July 17th, Mr Zhang Heqiang, Deputy Director of Department of American and Oceanian Affairs of the CPAFFC, held a reception for US African American High School Students Delegation. Students and teachers from Beijing Foreign Language School also attended the reception. During the reception, the Chinese and American Students put on performances with their respective cultural characteristics and had lively exchanges with each other. Before the reception , students visited the exhibition on the history of CPAFFC . At the invitation of China-United States Exchange Foundation,US African American High School Students Delegation will have a two-week study tour in Beijing and Shanghai.