Photos give Expo Milano 2015 visitors a glimpse of China's countryside to boost cultural cooperation

Visitors to the Expo Milano 2015 can enjoy nearly 50 pictures of China's beautiful countryside provided by the China Eco-Culture Association.

The association is publicizing the development of China's ecological culture through the photo exhibition to promote cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Italy.

Ecological culture is the relationship between humans and nature, according to the association.

Jiang Zehui, chief of the association, said that publicity of eco-friendly values involved in ecological culture plays an important role in helping China adjust its economic structures and achieve sustainable development.

The ecological culture association, which was founded on Oct 8, 2008, is committed to encouraging eco-friendly ways of production and life.

The association has become a platform for promoting ecological culture, organizing academic seminars and selecting the best models in the nation for eco-culture. For instance, one of the models it chose was the venue for the International Horticultural Exposition 2014 Qingdao. It has also hosted national summit forums and sought international cooperation with concerned parties.

The nonprofit organization has organized the national ecological culture summit forum six times since 2008. The latest one was held in Yanqing county of Beijing on June 27, 2013, where representatives from research institutes, universities and media outlets discussed theoretical systems, policies, practices and innovation in ecological culture.

They also talked about their experiences of publicizing ecological culture and promoting environmental protection.

The association selected the Guihe River Forest Park in Yanqing as a national ecological culture base at the forum.

The association launched two projects on Dec 14, 2010, to better understand the country's development of modern forestry and worldwide treatment of climate change.

The first is a study on models, monitoring and evaluation of ecological protection, and the second is research into China's ecological culture system.

The projects are of great significance to promoting China's sustainable development, according to the association.

During the seventh Flowers Expo held in Beijing in 2009, the association hosted an exhibition of science and eco-culture and publicized energy saving, environmental protection and healthy lifestyles.

The association has branches to cover specific areas including forest ecological culture, wetland ecological culture and desert ecological culture.

China's central government recently issued a document to help promote ecological culture, which said the country aims to make significant progress in building a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society by 2020.

Ecological culture can be broadly divided into natural ecological culture and social ecological culture.

Natural ecological culture includes forests, wetlands, grasslands, seas and oceans. Social ecological culture comprises cities, countryside areas, ethnic groups and religions.

Development of ecological culture is closely related to environmentally friendly industries, including sustainable agriculture and forestry, ecological philosophy, environmental aesthetics, ecological tourism, ecological ethics and ecological education.

The pictures exhibited by the China Eco-Culture Association at the Expo Milano show beautiful scenery and distinct folk buildings in China's countryside.

The Expo Milano began on May 1 and will continue to Oct 31. It is hosting more than 140 countries and organizations. The China Pavilion at the expo covers an area of 4,590 square meters.