WELLINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Tourism and Culture Carnival Gala between New Zealand and China was held on Friday in the New Zealand National Museum with the theme of "West meets East".

The carnival, co-hosted by the China Cultural Center in New Zealand and the Wellington City Council, was part of the 2019 China Tourism & Culture Week and the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism.

Artists from southwestern China's Chongqing municipality presented the Wellington audience with fun hand-painted magic show "Sparkling Miracle", acrobatics "Ringing Ring", "Pulling Ball" and sand-drawing performances.

Responding to the oriental plate is a passionate Maori-style cabaret performance. New Zealand's well-known violinist Elena, who was present at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, specially brought the Chinese famous song "Jasmine" and German musician Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major" to the carnival event.

Guo Zongguang, director of the China Cultural Center in New Zealand, encouraged New Zealanders to join the "Once-in-a-Lifetime Tour" to west China's Xi'an, ancient capital of the Silk Road, in September. The tour organized by the China Ministry of Culture and Tourism, will allow 1,000 New Zealanders to attend the Grand Tang Dynasty Welcoming Ceremony in Xi'an, and visit the Terracotta Warriors among many other wonderful destinations.

"China Travel Service and the Wellington City Council have done a lot of work in the promotion and organization of this project, which has already attracted New Zealanders from all walks of life to register," said Guo.

"This is not the only time the China Cultural Center is collaborating with the Wellington City Council either. In June, we're launching a booklet in Mandarin together on tourism in the Wellington Region. It is another project that we hope will increase exchanges in the areas of culture and tourism between China and New Zealand," he said.

Justin Lester, the mayor of Wellington City, stressed that Chinese visitors are very important to Wellington and New Zealand's economic success, to which tourism makes a critical contribution. More than 4 million visitors stepped onto New Zealand shores last year while around 600,000 visits were exchanged between China and New Zealand. China remains the second largest overseas tourist market of New Zealand.

"China is massive, massive market to New Zealand. Fortunately for us, we have outstanding relationship with China for many, many decades," said the mayor.

The 2019 China Tourism & Culture Week focuses on promoting the integration of culture and tourism. Through a series of colorful tourism promotion and cultural exchange activities around the world, it outlines China's beauty and realizes its cultural and travel integration goals "to promote tourism quality through culture and promote cultural communication through tourism."