Accomplished artists and gastronomes from Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province, entertained visitors with fabulous art shows and delicious Chengdu food, at the May 17 opening of the Experience China festival in Berlin, Germany.

Experience China is a series of cultural exchange events held during Asia-Pacific Week Berlin, with the current one co-organized by the State Council Information Office of China and the Chinese embassy in Germany.

The event featured a great variety of activities, such as face-changing performances of Sichuan Opera, demonstrations of kung fu, local song and dance presentations, hip-drum dance, Chengdu cuisine, Chengdu art shows and a panda sculptures show.

The face-changing performance marked a highlight of the event as the performance is the essence of the time-honored Sichuan-opera where actors tell ancient folklore stories by employing different face masks to express delicate, varied, invisible and intangible feelings of their parts.

Another highlight was the festival of Chengdu cuisine at which both Chinese and German chefs proved their abilities by turning out unusual, marvelous, inviting meals boasting wonderful colors, smells and tastes to the delight of the guests.

Shi Mingde, Chinese ambassador to Germany, said in the past, Chengdu was just a name to many Germans. Now, with Experience China, he added, the city's art and foods were presented in a vivid fashion that will surely boost the city's reputation among the German public.

Adding great vigor to the opening ceremony was a group of pretty Chengdu women, who in yellow silk dresses twirled gracefully to the music of Sichuan opera.

Zhang Yanbin, a senior official of the State Council Information Office, and Markus Ederer, secretary of state of the German Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, also attended the ceremony.