China’s experience in preserving its cultural heritage, advancing industrial technology and investing in agricultural research offers valuable lessons for Bangladesh. Reflecting on a recent visit to China, Kaiyum Hasan Rishad, a senior reporter at Bangladeshi television channel News24, highlighted how the country’s initiatives across these fields could provide useful ideas for Bangladesh as it considers its own development priorities.
During his visit to Shaanxi province, Rishad explored several historical landmarks and modern industrial facilities. Among the most memorable experiences were the Terracotta Army, a museum dedicated to Chinese opera, an automobile manufacturing plant and an apple research centre. Together, these visits offered him a view of China’s development that extended beyond technological achievements to include its commitment to cultural continuity and scientific innovation.
Although Rishad has not travelled extensively around the world, he described China as one of the most attractive countries he has visited. Its combination of history, culture, industrial capacity and technological progress left a lasting impression.
Preserving Heritage as a Long-Term Commitment
China’s approach to protecting its historical and cultural legacy was one of the most striking aspects of the visit. The Terracotta Army demonstrated the scale of the country’s historical inheritance, while the museum devoted to Chinese opera offered insight into the preservation of a traditional performing art.
Rishad was particularly impressed by the attention given to the history, techniques and demanding performance traditions associated with Chinese opera. In his view, maintaining a dedicated space for an art form’s history reflects a broader commitment to ensuring that cultural knowledge survives across generations.
Bangladesh also possesses a rich cultural inheritance, encompassing archaeological sites, traditional performances, folk arts and regional customs. China’s experience suggests that preserving such assets requires more than recognising their historical importance. Sustained institutional attention and efforts to document and present cultural traditions can help keep them relevant to future generations.
Industrial Technology and the Value of Firsthand Learning
The visit to an automobile manufacturing plant provided another perspective on China’s development. Observing the production process firsthand helped Rishad appreciate the coordination, planning and technical procedures required to manufacture a vehicle.
Modern industrial production depends on a complex combination of machinery, specialised skills and carefully organised processes. Seeing these elements at work offered a clearer understanding of the scale of activity behind a finished product.
For Bangladesh, such exposure can help identify areas where industrial capabilities and technological knowledge could be strengthened. Learning from another country does not require reproducing its development model wholesale. It can instead provide a basis for examining which technologies, production methods and organisational practices might be suitable for local conditions.
Agricultural Research as a Foundation for Productivity
Agriculture provided perhaps the most direct connection between China’s experience and Bangladesh’s development needs. At an apple orchard and research centre in Luochuan, Rishad learned about cultivation methods, production practices and efforts to develop new varieties.
According to information shared with him during the visit, research involving apples covered approximately 35,000 hectares, with more than 400 varieties under study. The scale of this work drew attention to the role of sustained research in developing agricultural production.
Bangladesh remains an agriculture-based country, but Rishad believes there is considerable scope to expand research beyond conventional crops. Fruit cultivation, the development of suitable varieties and the modernisation of farming methods deserve greater attention alongside established agricultural priorities.
China’s prominent position in global apple production illustrates the importance of long-term investment and organised research. Agricultural progress depends not only on the land available for cultivation but also on the knowledge, experimentation and technical capacity applied to it.
Reducing Import Dependence Through Research
Bangladesh has demand for apples and other imported fruits, creating expenditure on foreign purchases. Rishad argues that research into suitable varieties, improved cultivation techniques and local growing conditions could help assess whether domestic production can meet a greater share of that demand.
This would require evidence-based research rather than an assumption that every imported fruit can be produced competitively at home. The central opportunity lies in identifying crops and varieties suited to Bangladesh’s climate, agricultural conditions and consumer demand.
Closer cooperation with China could support this effort through agricultural technology exchanges, research collaboration and the sharing of practical experience. Stronger institutional links could help Bangladesh explore approaches that fit its own requirements.
Cooperation Through Knowledge Exchange
Rishad sees the relationship between Bangladesh and China as an opportunity for mutual learning. Bangladesh can draw on Chinese experience in technology, agricultural research and heritage preservation while also sharing its own knowledge and achievements.
For him, international exposure is valuable because it allows professionals to observe development initiatives directly and consider their relevance to their own countries. His visit was therefore not simply a journey through unfamiliar places, but an opportunity to reconsider Bangladesh’s possibilities through the experience of another society.
The broader lesson is that development can benefit from an openness to outside ideas without abandoning local priorities. Whether the subject is protecting cultural heritage, strengthening industrial production or improving agriculture, the challenge is to turn knowledge into practical initiatives.
For Bangladesh, China’s experience offers a range of possibilities to examine. The value of those lessons will ultimately depend on how effectively they can be adapted to the country’s own circumstances.
