Chinese President Xi Jinping is to attend the third Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague from March 24th to the 25th. It marks the first time for President Xi to pay a state visit to the Netherlands since he took office. We take a closer look now at the Netherlands, a country that’s much more than just tulips and windmills.

As April approaches, visitors from around the world are headed to the Netherlands to embrace the riot of color brought by tulips, one of the country’s signature flowers. The Netherlands is also inseparable from its windmills, which form an iconic part of its landscape.

Although the Netherlands has some of the tallest people in the world, with the average height for adult males at 6 feet, the country is geographically low-lying. That feature contributes to the country’s name, which literally means "Low Land" or "Low Country."

Although the land area of the Netherlands is approximately the size of Hainan Island in southern China, the country is large in terms of its culture and arts.

The city of Delft in south Holland is renowned for its ceramic products, which are dear to tourists from China. Porcelain making techniques were introduced to Delft some four hundred years ago, and have since been handed down from one generation to another.

"The Delftware here originated from China and is inspired by Chinese porcelain. But of course we’ve incorporated some western elements into our products as well," a royal Delftware designer said.

The Dutch people have long been interested in Chinese art and literature. Robert van Gulik, who preferred to be called Gao Luopei -- his Chinese name -- worked as a diplomat in China during the 1940s. He’s regarded as one of the most original and creative sinologists of the 20th century. Apart from playing Chinese lute and practising calligraphy, van Gulik also wrote a detective novel called "Judge Dee" that is widely recognized as the Chinese version of Sherlock Holmes.

Starting from 2010, the Netherlands has incorporated Chinese language studies into its secondary schools’ elective courses. The effort shows the country’s will to further strengthen China-Netherlands friendship and cultural exchange.

Statistics show that the Netherlands welcomes over 2-hundred thousand Chinese tourists every year. Meanwhile, more and more Chinese students are choosing the Netherlands as their destination for overseas study.