Officials and members of Golden Panda North American Filmmaker Cultural Immersion Trip to Guangdong attend a sendoff ceremony on Monday at Vancouver International Airport. YAXIN LIU / FOR CHINA DAILY

A group of young filmmakers have left for Guangdong province for a cultural immersion trip and to meet their contemporaries in China.

The Golden Panda North American Filmmaker Cultural Immersion Trip to Guangdong is part of the 2014 Golden Panda North America International Short Film Festival. It is organized by CNTV, the Guangdong Province Tourism Bureau, Southern Media Corp, and Orient Star Media Inc. G&E Canada, China Daily USA and China Southern Airlines also helped to organize the trip.

The 16-member group will visit several cities in Guangdong. The trip has three themes: appreciating Guangdong's history, humanities and landscape; witnessing Guangdong's economic and urban development; and communicating with young filmmakers in China.

Travelers will experience a mix of traditional and modern lingnan (literally, "south of the five ridges") cultures. They will see the Canton Tower, Guangzhou's modern landmark; the Kaiping Diaolou (Kaiping Watchtowers), a UNESCO world heritage site in Kaiping City; and will ride China's high-speed rail.

They also will visit film studios and meet some of their peers in Guangdong. A reality show series will be produced based on the North American filmmakers' trip to Guangdong.

"I'm very excited about going over to China," Collin Kortschak, the winner of the 2014 Golden Panda Best Director Award, told China Daily before embarking on his first trip to China. "It is a country with such a long history. I've always been interested in experiencing Chinese culture, and now I have this great opportunity to do so."

Government officials, local cultural figures and media gathered at Vancouver International Airport for a sendoff ceremony Monday.

Attending were Wang Qiang, cultural consul of the Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver; Richard Lee, a member of the British Columbia Assembly; Jan Walls, head of the cultural immersion trip group, president of the Canadian Society for Asian Arts and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University; Cheng Shaohong, general manager of China Southern Airlines; and Jacky Wu, COO of Orient Star Media Inc.

"[The trip] is an extraordinary time to look at and get involved with Chinese counterparts in movie production," Walls said. "There is no better way to inspire creativity than to experience life from different angles."