The 8th Nicosia Book Festival, featuring China as the Country of Honor, was inaugurated on Friday in the capital city of Cyprus.

Launched in 2016, the Nicosia Book Festival is the largest such event in Cyprus, and has been expanding its influence into neighboring areas as well. As the Country of Honor, China has exhibited over 1,000 books of different genres covering politics, traditional culture, and education. It's also the first time China and Cyprus have cooperated in holding such an event in the publishing industry.

A number of Chinese writers, scholars and calligraphers have also attended the event.

On the sidelines of the book festival, a Chinese traditional painting exhibition was also inaugurated on Thursday. The exhibition mainly showcased the traditional Chinese paintings styles of different dynasties, so as to give a picture to the visitors a general idea of the Chinese painting history.

A China-Cyprus Civilization Exchange Forum was opened on Friday as well, bringing together leading personalities from politics, academia and literature under the slogan 'Exploring Harmonious Coexistence Between Civilizations and Between Humanity and Nature.'

The attendees have talked about the need to foster dialogue, mutual understanding and publishing cooperation between the two sides.