"I hope to live another 60 years to see what China will be," Oded Ofek, a 34-year-old Tel Aviv resident, told Xinhua enthusiastically on Tuesday afternoon.

The words came as Ofek, a website consultant, watched the China-themed picture exhibition entitled "A Close Look at China," which is held at a venerable museum in the Old Yafo area in Israel's TelAviv-Yafo metropolis and will conclude at the end of this month.

On display are hundreds of pictures offering a panorama of China's unprecedented strides from an impoverished and backward country toward a prosperous and modern one, with their contents relating to agriculture, industry, education, medical care and many other sectors.

The exhibition "will introduce to the Israeli people the tremendous changes that have taken place in China since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and will showcase the significant achievements the Chinese people have made in the past 60 years," Wang Chen, minister of China's State Council Information Office, said Monday in his speech at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

The selection of pictures are "meant to offer a new window for the Israeli people to know about the social and economic progress" China has made in the past six decades, especially since its opening-up 30 years ago, added Wang.

The exhibition is part of a grand series of China-themed cultural events currently underway in Israel, named "Experience China in Israel." As one of the biggest cultural events ever held in the host nation, the event, cosponsored by China's State Council Information Office and Israeli Foreign Ministry, is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC and the 17th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"The changes (over the past 60 years) have been so fast and so great, it must be interesting to see what will be in the future of this land," said Ofek, who was deeply impressed by the pictures.

"I have decided China is one of the places that I must visit," he said affirmatively.

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