A Confucius cultural festival to be held in east China's Shandong Province is expected to further facilitate the exchanges and mutual learning among global civilizations by drawing on the wisdom of Chinese ancient philosopher Confucius.

The 2024 China International Confucius Cultural Festival, with the theme of "conversation with Confucius, mutual learning among civilizations," will open in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius, a press conference announced Friday.

Scheduled to run from Sept. 27 to Oct. 7, the festival will blend culture with tourism, featuring various art performances, exhibitions and folk culture activities across Shandong.

Xu Rong, an official of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT), said the festival is expected to be joined by more than 370 guests from outside the Chinese mainland, including representatives of international organizations, foreign establishments of Confucian studies, and foreign diplomats.

The ministry will actively support Shandong in building the festival into an important platform for communication and mutual learning among global civilizations, thus raising the international influence of Chinese culture, Xu said.

This year's festival is jointly launched by the provincial government of Shandong, the MCT and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO.

Nishan Mountain, located in Qufu, is widely recognized as the place where the philosopher was born. In 2010, Shandong initiated the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. This year's forum was held in July.