A photographic exhibit from the Barkerville Historic Town is due to be shown at the Guangdong Museum of Overseas Chinese as a result of the premier's trade mission in China currently underway.
The exhibit, entitled Who Am I?, explores the lives of Chinese migrants who came to Barkerville in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the gold rush, and is expected to be on display at the Guangdong museum in Guangzhou in the spring 2013.
Photos will be on display in Prince George before heading to the Hong Kong Museum of History in early 2013, after which it will go to the Guangdong Museum of Overseas Chinese.
The exhibit is also expected to be shown in Jiangmen, Kaiping and Taishan.
Jobs, tourism and innovation minister Pat Bell said the exhibit will help draw tourists, noting the the majority of people who moved to Barkerville came from the province of Guangong and specifically the city of Guangzhou.
"We have very strong roots between our two provinces and we need to build on that," Bell said Monday during a teleconference.
The exhibit features about 80 framed photographs of people who left Guangdong to come to "Gold Mountain" in B.C. An additional 1,000 photos will be displayed through the interactive computer kiosk.
Many of the photos were taken so people could send them home to China, and organizers hope visitors can identify some people in the photos.
The exhibit comes on the heels of an agreement with Sichuan Airlines for three new flights a week to Vancouver from Chengdu and Shenyang in 2012, expected to attract 31,000 visitors to B.C. annually, and generate $3.5 million in economic activity each year.
Bell is on his seventh trip to China in three-and-a-half years, and in an interview last week, he described this latest journey as anything but routine.
For one thing, Bell said the focus is on more than just forest products as international education, mining, liquefied natural gas, seafood promotion, tourism, transportation and technology are on the agenda.
And there's just the shear scale - 250 representatives from more than 120 companies and organizations are participating, including University of Northern British Columbia, Canfor, West Fraser and Conifex.
"When it was strictly a forestry trade mission, 80 was a big one," Bell said.
Those on the mission will be busy. Bell daily schedule is booked from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. with meetings and events in six cities over 10 days on the ground.
Bell's itinerary includes a meeting in Beijing with China's minister of housing and urban development, who is responsible for delivering about 85 million units of housing over the next five years.
"To put that in perspective, the United States in a big year builds about two million units and right now they're building about a half-million units of housing," Bell said. "So, this is significant, this level of attention."
Bell won't be going to India, the other country on the entourage's agenda, leaving that leg to Fraser Valley MLA Mike DeJong.
"I'll be staying on in China after the premier leaves," Bell said.
Bell's trip will end in Hong Kong, while Forest Minister Steve Thomson will make a stop in Japan.
