A Water Lily Flower Blooming in Spring City

 

“In 2010, when I first came to Yunnan with Prime Minister of Bangladesh, I immediately fell in love with Kunming. I told myself, if Bangladesh sets up its consulate general in Kunming, I must come here," said Ms. Shahnaz Gazi, Consul General of Bangladesh in Kunming, "Three or four years later, Bangladesh did set up its consulate general in Kunming and I’m glad to be here. Yunnan is love at first sight for me.”

On May 21, 2013, when Bangladesh became the first South Asian country to set up its consulate general in Kunming, Ms. Shahnaz Gazi also became the only female among the consuls general of the seven Southeast and South Asian countries in Kunming.

The establishment of the Bangladeshi Consulate General not only has made it more convenient for Kunming people to apply for the Bangladesh visa but also has provided a new channel for Yunnan and Bangladeshi enterprises to obtain information and communicate with each other. In recent years, with increasingly close economic ties between Kunming and Bangladesh, a lot of Bangladeshi companies have invested in Yunnan and more and more Kunming people have visited Bangladesh for studies and sightseeing. The direct flights between Kunming and Dhaka are always fully booked.

Although she has been in Yunnan for just over a year, Ms. Gazi has visited a lot of places in Yunnan, which have given her deep impressions. She hopes that this beautiful place will contribute even more to the future China-Bangladesh ties, especially those between Bangladesh and Yunnan.
“I love flowers, and Kunming is a city of blooming flowers. I love every kind of flower in Yunnan,” said Ms. Gazi at the “I Have a Date with Yunnan - 2015 Consul General Spring Festival Musical Storytelling Session”. In the Chinese culture, women are often associated with various flowers. Some people think that Ms. Gazi is as romantic and gentle as an early spring cherry blossom; others think that she is as quiet and elegant as a winter magnolia blossom. However, Ms. Gazi prefers to liken herself to a water lily flower, not only because it is the national flower of Bangladesh but also because it quietly grows and blooms in the water in both Bangladesh and Yunnan.

(Zhang Ruogu)