Belgium has a new passport design featuring some of the country's world-famous comic book characters.

The small western European nation is known for chocolate, cobbled medieval streets and being the home of many of the European Union's institutions. But it's also produced some of the world's most popular cartoon characters, like Tintin, the Smurfs and Gaston Lagaffe.

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Alongside landmarks like Brussels' Atomium, the new passport's pages host silhouettes of the much-loved characters and items like the space rocket the detective Tintin and his ramshackle crew took to the moon.

The Smurfs, originally known as Les Schtroumpfs, make regular appearances in Belgian street art, and Brussels residents said they liked the idea of the impish blue creatures' inclusion on the official documents.

"Yes, it's a good idea… It's more pleasant to look at than ordinary papers," Henri Deman said. 

"Is it serious? Yes and no, but in any case, I think it's nice to revive a bit of Belgian culture. Maybe abroad, they will not necessarily understand it, but it's nice to have a touch of humor in our time," said Cecile Jeangout. 

Belgium's Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes said the new design had a deeper purpose, as well as national pride in Belgium's exports. 

"We are very proud of the comics and the Belgian comics that our country has managed to develop," she said. "And I don't know if it's soft power, but it's very powerful.

"Therefore, we also chose it because we are not only very proud of what we are doing in Belgium, but it also gives us the opportunity to use the drawing as an element of security for our passports," she explained. 

But most of all, as Brussels resident Ingrid Vergote captured, it's a little bit of Belgian culture in every citizens' pocket.

"It's our culture, it's the way it is. It's typically Belgian, no other country would think of doing this kind of thing. This is what we are famous for."

Video editor: Beijing Feng