Increasing number of Bangladeshi students studying in Yunnan

Yunnan province is located in the south-western part of China. The province has historically been serving as the gateway for China to South and Southeast Asia. The ancient 'Southern Silk Road' was the starting point of this outer communication for Yunnan, which emerged as the shortest trade route between China and India in the 12th century. With an area of 394,000 square kilometres, Yunnan province has more than 45 million population. There are 25 ethnic minorities in Yunnan while some of them have cross-border relationship with the same ethnic groups living on the other side of China (Yunnan)-Myanmar border. Under the mega concept of 'One Belt, One Road,' initiated by current Chinese President Xi Jinping in the late 2013, China paid great attention to the development of Yunnan province as a focal point of the revival of Southern Silk Road.
Given this context, the local government of Yunnan with the help of the central government of China, has undertaken numerous initiatives in order to ensure required infrastructural development as well as sustainable economic growth of the province. Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan, contains almost all the modern facilities to be a mega-city in this region. The province remains one of the prime examples of eco-friendly development of China in the 21st century. Apart from economic and infrastructural developments, Yunnan has been opened up for greater cultural exchange with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and India.
There are a number of areas for cultural cooperation between Bangladesh and Yunnan, such as, tourism and academic exchange programmes. It is needless to say that tourism has been a very fruitful way to promote cross-cultural understanding among the countries. Bangladesh and Yunnan share common historical understanding about each other's culture for hundreds of years, which were greatly promoted by the ancient Southern Silk Road throughout the history.
Both Bangladesh and Yunnan are blessed with a number of famous historical as well as world heritage sites. For example, major tourist spots of Bangladesh include the Sundarbans, Cox's Bazar sea beach, Kaptai Lake in Rangamati, beautiful hilly areas of Bandarban, tea gardens in Sylhet as well as many other natural and historic places in Dhaka, Chittagong and other parts of the country. On the other hand, Yunnan province has some beautiful tourist sites, such as the Stone Forest, three pagodas in Dali and other numerous beautiful natural sites in Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Xishuangbanna. Following these, the number of Bangladeshi tourists to Yunnan is increasing day by day. The favourable climate of Yunnan, its excellent infrastructure development as well as superb service systems attract many Bangladeshi tourists to visit various cultural heritage sites of the area. The direct flight between Dhaka and Kunming is already operating, which has paved the way for further promoting tourism between Yunnan and Bangladesh. In fact, both Bangladesh and China have agreed on accelerating people-to-people contacts thereby boosting cultural ties between the two countries.  
Besides tourism, Yunnan and Bangladesh have already developed mutual cooperation in terms of academic exchanges. The number of Bangladeshi students pursuing higher education in various universities in Yunnan has increased over the past few years. Currently, Yunnan University, Dali Medical Collage, Kunming University of Science and Technology and a number of other educational institutions in Yunnan have hundreds of Bangladeshi students pursuing higher education in various disciplines. Attractive scholarships from the Chinese government as well as better educational facilities have greatly been influencing more Bangladeshi students to get their higher studies in Yunnan.  
In addition to these developments, a number of research institutions in Yunnan and Bangladesh are cooperating with each other for promoting academic exchange. For example, Yunnan Academy of Social Science and Yunnan University have been playing major roles in promoting academic exchanges with research think-tanks and various public as well as private universities in Bangladesh. Yunnan University and North South University (NSU) of Bangladesh have jointly set up the Confucius Institute in NSU to facilitate Chinese language training and cultural orientation for students and scholars of Bangladesh. Furthermore, Yunnan is also continuously hosting visiting fellowship programmes and international conferences with regard to academic exchange of views and to promote joint research activities.
Despite these initiatives in the field of cultural exchanges between Bangladesh and Yunnan, there are a number of areas yet to be addressed for improvement of their mutual understanding and cultural cooperation. Following initiatives can be undertaken in this regard:
(1) Besides the Confucius Centre at North South University in Dhaka, some other Chinese cultural centres need to be established in some major places of Bangladesh, including Dhaka and Chittagong metropolitan cities. Similarly, more Bangladeshi cultural and study centres are also needed to be established in Yunnan for promotion of bilateral cultural understandings.
(2) Given the language as an effective method of cultural interaction, more institutions need to be established in Bangladesh and Yunnan for teaching  Bengali and Chinese languages respectively.
(3) There is also a greater need to set up Chinese Study Centres in major public universities of Bangladesh, including Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University, Jagannath University and Rajshahi University. Likewise, a few academic institutions on Bangladesh Studies need to be set up in some major educational institutions in Yunnan, including Yunnan University, Kunming University, Yunnan Normal University, and so on. These study centres are supposed to simultaneously promote cross-cultural orientation to students, provide higher degrees, offer major literatures of Bengali and Chinese languages in translated forms to the readers, and do regular publications on various aspects of China-Bangladesh relations.
From this writer's own experience, Bangladeshi students of higher education are now-a-days interested to know about Chinese language and culture.
The writer is a visiting Research Fellow at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences (YASS), Kunming, China. He is also a Research Associate (International Affairs) at Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA).
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