Old neighbors become new friends

Governments closer

Despite this, both governments realize the importance of closer cooperation in various fields, including global issues.

The two countries have maintained frequent high-level exchanges and expanded cultural contacts over the past year, and 2011 is "China-India Culture Year".

Premier Wen Jiabao visited India for three days at the end of last year, the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar said his visit "could bring China-India cooperation to a new high level".

However, while governmental relations are warming up and promoting deeper and broader ties, mutual understanding between the two peoples is lagging behind.

According to a survey by Pew Research Center in 2008, 34 percent of Indians had a favorable impression of China, while 44 percent of Indian people saw China as a rival, and 32 percent said China was a partner.

The situation has improved over the past three years, but the level of people-to-people exchange between the two countries is still lower than their exchanges with other major countries.

More than 100,000 Indian students are currently studying in the United States, while around 7,000 are in China.

Meanwhile, almost 100,000 Chinese students are studying in the US, but only about 4,000 chose to study in India.

Data showed an increase in the number of tourists to each other's countries. In 2010, 549,300 Indians traveled to China for tourism, an increase of 22 percent compared with 2009, while 99,000 Chinese people visited India, up 26 percent on the previous year.

But these numbers are far from large compared to both countries' huge populations.

Although there is a gap in mutual knowledge, but both governments and peoples are fortunately beginning to realize the problem.

"China and India should expand their tourism exchanges, as well as cultural dialogues, in terms of movies, music and education. Fundamentally, they are perfect partners," said Nalapat.

Being at the same stage of development, the two neighboring civilizations are learning to be new friends in the 21st century, which will benefit not only the two, but also the whole world.