Switzerland writer Philippe Rahmy called Hangzhou "a shocking beauty that attracts with her external appearance first, followed with internal beauty" during a cross-cultural exchange on literature yesterday.

Rahmy and six other overseas writers shared their ideas on "Travel and Writing" and "Travel and Hometown" with five Hangzhou writers at Hangzhou International Information Exchange Center (HiCenter), just a few steps from the beautiful West Lake.

The event was organized by Shanghai Daily, the Shanghai Writers' Association and HiCenter. The Hangzhou Tourism Commission, Hangzhou Information Office and Zhejiang Province Writers' Association also provided support.

The seven writers were invited to be a part of the 2011 Shanghai Writing Program. They will stay here for two months and the program is an effort to let writers experience Shanghai in an unstructured way in hopes that they will at some point write about China.

Li Hong, director of the Hangzhou Tourism Commission, welcomed the guests from around the world and called such exchanges "a great way to promote Hangzhou."

"It is a great opportunity to hear profound and inspiring ideas from these writers, and I would like to leverage these ideas in the marketing of the city," he told Shanghai Daily. "For travelers from other parts of the world, words and videos recorded by foreigners who have visited Hangzhou will appeal more than simply translating from the Chinese mentality."

He added that the commission had organized many cross-cultural projects, taking advantage of great foreign minds and modern technology, to promote the city from various perspectives.

The "Travel and Writing" session was mediated by Ye Xin, vice chairman of both the Chinese Writers' Association and the Shanghai Writers' Association. He has published 106 books.

Ye began by sharing a poem he wrote after visiting Belgrade, the capital of the Republic of Serbia. The post-war city offered him new perspectives on war and peace as well as overcoming life's difficulties. Ye also explained why he chose "Travel and Writing" as a topic.

"Writers' lives can not be separated from traveling. Not only does travel inspire writers, it also helps them understand themselves and their hometowns better," Ye said. "Many good writers' best stories are based on their life experiences, childhood memories and hometowns."

Both local and foreign writers agreed that visiting other places helps them understand their hometowns better, which was the topic for the second session, "Travel and Hometown."

The session's mediator Zhang Ciyun, editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily, used the Chinese saying: "Though a tree grows ever so high, the falling leaves return to the ground" to encapsulate his perspective on the topic, especially after living outside of his hometown Shanghai for more than 30 years, and feeling a strong desire to return.

(Nie Xin and Andrea O'Neil also contributed to the story.)

Quick thoughts on Hangzhou and China

Colm Breathnach is a poet and novelist from Ireland.

Visiting China has made Breathnach realize Chinese poetry is like Irish poetry at the end of the 19th century. "The language isn't finding its voice in the form," he says. "Poetry has to inspire people. It can't be just 'I'm feeling bad so I write a poem.' It's hard to do that in a language that has such a strong traditional meter."

Linda Neil is a writer and musician from Australia.

Neil was delighted to discover Suzhou's musical pingtan poetry - she prefers to punctuate her readings with her own compositions, and Hangzhou fueled her musical creativity. "They have a tradition of poetry here and I feel inspired to make music on the lake," she says. "Water always brings contemplation."

Alma Brami is a novelist from France.

Hangzhou was like a breath of fresh air for Brami. "I think Hangzhou is really beautiful, really poetic and very different to Shanghai," she says. "It's like parentheses."

The Parisian will use her Chinese trip as inspiration for her fifth novel. "It's like I have my door open and I absorb, and after I'll write. Hangzhou and Shanghai and a lot of people I met will be in my book."

Amal Chatterjee is a novelist from the United Kingdom.

Having lived in India, Scotland, Spain and now the Netherlands, Shanghai's big-city atmosphere was not a shock to Chatterjee. "It was slightly disappointingly familiar in some ways. I expected it to be more alien." However, Chatterjee finds inspiration anywhere he lives, familiar or exotic. "Home is where I happen to be at a particular time."

Cristina Rascon Castro is a novelist from Mexico.

Castro has always lived near water, whether in Austria or her hometown in Mexico, so Hangzhou felt like home to her. "I love it," she says. "I feel very connected."

Nature is her true home, she says. "I love that nature is a place of contemplation and meditation."

Sudeep Sen is a poet from India.

Getting out of Shanghai on trips to Hangzhou, Beijing and Inner Mongolia has given Sen a much-desired taste of the "real China," as opposed to "glitzy" Shanghai. "When I travel outside of Shanghai I feel more inspired," he says. "I'm very open ... If you can't be open and vulnerable then you can't be a writer."

Philippe Rahmy is a poet and novelist from Switzerland.

Rahmy believes discovering new cultures can blur the distinction between one's inner and outer life, just as travelling does. "It's a total experience," he says. "This feeling of being very strongly attracted to a place and feeling lost in a place is superposable with writing."

Hangzhou writers

Yuan Min

"The feeling of loss, confusion, pain and desperation from real life, as well as the sense of homeless exile caused by such feelings, can gradually be cured through constant dialogue with wordless mountains and rivers. I often get such inspiration when I travel. This inspiration shocks me so much that I wish to keep it and to present such beauty to others."

Mo Xiaomi

"I admire those who have left their hometown and settled elsewhere. I have never left. To me, travel means going far away and the desire to leave for remote places. Since the 1980s, I started traveling to faraway areas. Hometown is the beauty inside. Travel, no matter how far I go, is attached with the hometown, starting here and finishing here. Then I can go back to my daily life."