A READING club forexpats was launched in theHongqiao international community as part of the Changning Reading Festival that began yesterday.

The Hong Man Reading Club for Foreigners will host various book reading and sightseeing tour events about traditional Chinese opera, tea culture and stories behind local historical roads.

The club aims to help the foreigners learn about Shanghai and China. It will also become a “cultural and friendship bridge” for people from across the world, according to the Hongqiao subdistrict.

A Shanghai Opera event will invite Peking, Kunqu, Yueju opera artists and Pingtan storytellers to perform classic local repertoires. “A Tea on the Sea” event invites foreign readers to make and taste Shanghai-style teas.

The Hongqiao community, one of Shanghai’s first international communities, is home to people from over 60 countries and regions. It has over 20 foreign consulates and three international schools.

“It is very important for new expats to have such an organization which they can join to learn work and seek collaboration opportunities,” said Manuel Guolo from Italy.

The marketing official with Hong Qiao International School attended the first reading event of the festival at the Gubei Civic Center yesterday. “Shanghai needs more such opportunities for foreigners,” he added.

The reading festival was initiated in Changning in 2012.