Great railroad linking to the future.

The 142 kilometre-long high-speed railway linking Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, with Bandung, a famous tourist city, will surely stir the aspirations of both the Chinese and Indonesian peoples when the train hurls along the gleaming track at 350 kilometres per hour.

The completion of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, as a landmark project of the practical cooperation between China and Indonesia, will demonstrate that their long-term BRI cooperation is to have more encouraging progress.

The two countries maintain friendly exchanges and close cooperation in all aspects. Sport has become a new way of communicating -- from Jakarta to Hangzhou, the torch of the Asian Games is passed on.

The Hangzhou 2022 journalist interviewed Arlan Perkasa Lukman, a member of the Executive Committee of KOI and the Director of Venue and Environment Department of the Indonesian Asian Games Organising Committee, to look back at the friendly ties between China and Indonesia.

Starting a dialogue about the Maritime Silk Road

17,508 islands.

This is the spectacular and remarkable feature of the Indonesian Archipelago, which stretches across Asia and Oceania. The hot wind of the equator blows from the sea, bringing the good news of the century -- the joint building of the "Maritime Silk Road".

On October 3, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping began his first state visit to the Southeast Asian countries. Xi made his first stop in Indonesia, where he proposed, for the first time, to jointly build a 21st century "Maritime Silk Road".

Since the initiative was advanced, the two countries have made solid steps towards jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind and have achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation across the board.

The origin of the ties between the two nations can be traced back to the old Maritime Silk Road which flourished for thousands of years before the Age of Discovery. In the early 15th century, Zheng He, a famous Ming Dynasty Chinese navigator, completed seven voyages across the ocean. He never failed to stop at the island nation and made his way to Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and other places. And, the story of friendship and peace has been passed down through ages.

The initiative for building an even closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future has charted the course for the long-term development of the China-ASEAN relations. Last November, China and ASEAN member states held a special summit to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the dialogue relationship, at which the two sides reached a consensus on deepening their sports exchange. Indonesia will become the rotating chair of the ASEAN community in 2023, and more efforts are expected to promote sports and cultural exchanges between China and ASEAN countries.

Sporting events contribute to the jointconstruction and sharing of the dividends of cooperation

Let's turn our attention again to the Jakarta Asian Games four years ago.

Susi Susanti the legendary Indonesian badminton star, climbed to the top of GBK Stadium and lit the Asian Games flame. The energy of the Asian Games then ignited the whole of Asia.

This relay was passed onto the next leg to great anticipation. Like Susi Susanti conveyed in an interview with the Hangzhou 2022, her expectation for the Hangzhou Asian Games is "I believe Hangzhou will be a great host." Sport will bring the friendship between China and Indonesia closer.

In 2018, the right to host the Asian Games was transferred from Jakarta, Indonesia to Hangzhou, China. In 2022, Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited China as the first foreign head of state after the Beijing Winter Olympics. The two countries have achieved more practical cooperation results.

A milestone in the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway was, by June 2022, all 13 tunnels along the line were completed, laying a solid foundation for its completion and opening to traffic in June 2023. The scheduled opening of the highspeed railway will greatly boost the economic growth of the regions along the route. Thanks to the BRI cooperation, China and Indonesia will reap tangible benefits. It is expected that in the future, the people of the two countries can ride the high-speed railway for exchanges across all aspects. Sports will undoubtedly be a part of them.

Asian Games'top 10 confidence holders

The Indonesian sports delegation won 31 gold, 24 silver and 43 bronze medals at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta. "We hope that we might still be in the top 10 of the Asian Games." Arlan Perkasa Lukman was full of confidence.

As a sporting powerhouse in Southeast Asia, Indonesia already has long-term TC in several sports, with more coming soon. As part of the preparations, the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Cambodia in May and the Asian World Badminton Games (AWBG) in Bali, Indonesia in August will serve as evidence of this readiness.

"We aim for well over 100 Athletes and officials. We might participate in athletics, swimming, gymnastics, football, weightlifting, badminton and many others," he said.

Like any other games, game schedule, game information and transportation will be the biggest challenge for the host city. "It is worth noting that, "the English speaking and helpful volunteers might be a game changer and make the games even better. Involvement of related embassies might also be a great benefit, such as the involvement of Indonesian students to become volunteers for Team Indonesia."

Arlan expects that all the embassies of the participating Asian countries will do the same and participate in the recruitment of volunteers, which will be a strong footnote to participate in and share the Hangzhou Asian Games.