Sean B. Stein, Consul General of the United States in Shanghai, attends the opening ceremony of the 2019 Wuxi International Cherry Blossom Festival on March 26. [Photo by Wu Yeyun/chinadaily.com.cn]

As one of the most iconic tourist and cultural events in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, the annual Wuxi International Cherry Blossom Festival has won the praise from many countries' consul generals in Shanghai.

"The festival has transcended the boundaries of China and Japan to become a platform for people-to-people communication around the world. I'm very proud and happy to see that," said Akio Isomata, Consul General of Japan in Shanghai, at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Wuxi International Cherry Blossom Festival on March 26.

Akio Isomata, Consul General of Japan in Shanghai, talks with guests before the opening ceremony. [Photo by Wu Yeyun/chinadaily.com.cn]

Hosted by the Wuxi Municipal People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the one-week festival has been seeing more than 700 guests from 29 countries who will attend over 10 cultural and business activities held by the organizing committee.

The festival can be traced back to the 1980s when the city started to build a Sino-Japanese Cherry Blossom Friendship Forest with a Japanese non-governmental group, and civic exchanges between Chinese and Japanese people based on cherry blossom tree planting have taken place ever since, with it turning into a global and comprehensive exchange event in 2014.

"If we say that cherry blossom is the harbinger of spring, then Wuxi should be a bridge that connects China with the world," said Sean B. Stein, Consul General of the United States in Shanghai, who has visited Wuxi for four times and attended the festival for twice.

"I've found that each year the festival gets bigger and more international, and more people come to visit it. I'm sure this year's event will be more impressive than last year," said Stein.