During the festival, four forums, namely the architectural forum, photojournalism forum, portrait forum and scenery forum, were opened in order to facilitate the exchanges between Chinese and foreign photography worlds. It was also a good opportunily for amateurs or photography lovers to have a face-to-face interaction with professionals. The launching of these forums, a bright spot of this year's festival, has added luster to the Pingyao International Photography Festival and held a creative significance for the history of Chinese photography.