Agnese Sturmane, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in China: Expecting Tourists to Return to Picturesque Riga After the Pandemic

Recently, Agnese Sturmane, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in China received an interview from WTCF. Agnese shared the measures and experience of Latvia in combating COVID-19 and introduced the rich history and unique artistic atmosphere of Riga, a member city of WTCF.

Release time : 2021-01-18 09:56:07

source : WTCF

emergency situation, which means most of the public places like entertainment venues, restaurants will be closed. Restaurants will be only serving take-away food. Only the 1st till 6th grades students can attend school. Other university and high school students are learning from home. People are encouraged to work from home. The government has enforced different sorts of supportive systems for companies. For example, different export vouchers or innovation vouchers. We're looking more into helping with different infrastructure projects to boost our economy.

WTCF: Riga is WTCF's city member. Are there places worth visiting in Riga? And are there unique culture and customs that worth visiting in the city?

Agnese Sturmane: Riga is considered as the cultural, art and tourism center of the Baltic states. And it's the largest city in the Baltic states with more than 800-year history. You can see various different architecture there in different times that the city has experienced. So, first thing that you definitely have to visit is the Riga Old Town. It's the most historical part of the city, and it has a lot of iconic historical monuments like, for example, St Peter's Church and St John’s Church. You can also see the city from above the churches. It's very beautiful.

First of all, stroll through the Old Town, try some local food. And then, not far away from the Old Town, around 15 or 20-minute walk, you can also see absolutely different style of architecture, which are called art nouveau style architecture, originating from the beginning of the 20th century. What's unique with these architectures is that they have a lot of ornaments on the buildings. Each building is like a masterpiece of art. Riga can be considered to be like the Mecca of this sort of architecture.

Then there are also lots of museums, including art museums, history museums and occupation museums. One of my favourite museums is the Open Air Museum. It's