This year's Silk Road Week, titled "The Silk Roads: Mutual Learning for Future Collaboration", kicked off on Friday at the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Hosted by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Zhejiang provincial government, the event is the first edition of the annual Silk Road Week, which was proposed in June 2019 to honor the Silk Road spirit and is expected to take place every June in China and other countries along the road.

Zhu Guoxian, head of the publicity department in Zhejiang, addressed the opening ceremony, saying mutual learning is crucial to international exchanges and cooperation today, and expressed confidence the ancient Silk Road would be restored to its former glory.

Mechtild R?ssler, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, said in a video the week's theme echoes the spirit of the World Heritage Convention announced in 1972, and the Silk Road will lay a solid foundation for future collaboration.