A glorious page of the friendship between Sri Lanka and China opened along this long silk road. This friendship entered through the silk road from the ancient China to this land. Since then Sri Lanka and China had established close relations in economic and cultural fields. The annals of history reveal that Chinese forefathers were quite conscious of the neighboring states. In former times, Chinese leaders had mastered the art of co-existence on the mighty land of China with one fourth of the global population. Traditions have been built over periods of time which are well worth preserving. It was with this intention that a group of interested colleagues formed the Sri Lanka China Society on 5 October 1981. Since then the society has made some contributions to the task of strengthening friendship between the two countries without any vested interests, political or otherwise. Since its establishment in 1981, the society has been very close to the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka. Through the embassy, the society were close to the Chinese people. Another achievement of the society is the very close association it developed during this period with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which is a very strong institution in China. In recognition of the society's contributions and achievements in promoting friendship between the two countries, five prominent members of the society were rewarded as friendship promoters by the CPAFFC in 2007.