Douyin account of Russian Embassy in China Photo: Screenshot of Douyin

Just three days after the Russian Embassy in China opened an official account on popular Chinese short video platform Douyin, it reached 548,000 fans with 1.39 million likes on its two video clips where the Russian Ambassador to China invites Chinese netizens to take a virtual tour of the embassy and shows his love to China with fluent Putonghua. 

In the first video posted on Douyin by Ambassador Andrey Denisov on Friday, he welcomed users to follow his account and read the Chinese poem Jing Ye Si (Quiet Night Thoughts in English) in fluent Putonghua. This poem was written by Li Bai during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The theme of this poem is nostalgia and describes a person who is longing for his hometown at night.

"Please give a like for China-Russia friendship," the ambassador said. The first video has reached 1.1 million likes as of Monday evening. 

In the second video the embassy posted on Monday, the ambassador invited netizens to visit the embassy with a virtual tour. "The area of our embassy is the largest in Beijing. There is only one foreign embassy inside the second ring road," Denisov said in Putonghua. 

In the video, the ambassador also showed the exterior buildings and interior furnishings of the church in the embassy.

Many Chinese netizens praised the ambassador's empathy and wished him good health and hope to continue acting as the bridge between China-Russia cooperation and friendship.

Others suggested the embassy should join the livestreaming e-commerce business offering honey, ham and chocolates to Chinese customers.