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Sister Cities: Promote Sino-foreign Friendship
With the adoption of reforms and the opening up policy in China, Nanjing, the capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, like many other major Chinese cities, started to increase its contact and cooperation with foreign metropolises more than two decades ago.
After the signing of the Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty in December, 1978, Nanjing and Nagoya of Japan became the first pair of sister cities between the two countries.
The next year, Nanjing and St. Louis of the U.S. forged friendship relations, becoming the first pair of sister cities between China and the United States.
Now, the Chinese city has established friendship with 11 cities from the five continents of the world, such as Florence of Italy, Leipzig of Germany, Mexicali of Mexico, and Taejon of the Republic of Korea.
Tourists from Japan have been swarming to Nanjing since the city set up friendship relations with Nagoya. The two cities also jointly built a hotel in Nanjing to accommodate Japanese tourists.
Group visits between the cities have been frequent over the years. A children art troupe consisting from Nanjing has visited Nagoya four times and have been praised by the Japanese people as "cultural angels" and "cultural ambassadors".
During the past few years, people in Nagoya have launched a campaign to renovate the ancient city walls in Nanjing, and as many as 20,000 Japanese people have come to Nanjing for the labor.
Visiting the memorial hall for Chinese nationals, who died in the massacre committed by Japanese invaders during the World War Two, has become a must for many Japanese visitors to Nanjing.
Every year since 1978, a delegation from Nagoya has come to Nanjing for tree-planting. Now the one-hundred mu (about 6.7 hectares) "Japanese Orchard" in the Zhenzhuyuan Park has been completed.
"Let God be the witness, the Japanese and Chinese people will be friendly for generations to come," said a visitor from Nagoya after planting trees in Nanjing this year.
Holland city Eindhover, where the Philips headquarters are located, has also forged a friendship relation with Nanjing. The company has set up 24 joint or solely-owned enterprises and invested a total of one billion U.S. dollars on the mainland of China.
While in Nanjing alone, Philips has invested in five companies, investing 600 million U.S. dollars in the city. Compared with other Chinese cities, Nanjing has received the most investment from Phillips.
According to statistics, most of the foreign-funded enterprises in Nanjing were set up as a result of contacts with its friendship cities.
The cultural cooperation between Nanjing and St. Louis in the US is typical. The two cities have hosted a number of exhibitions and music activities in each other's cities.
The two cities also united to organize a landscape photography exhibition of the Yangtse and Mississippi Rivers.
Friendship relations have also been forged between universities and middle schools, as well as newspapers, of the two cities, which have promoted mutual understanding.
The friendship cities exchanges have enhanced the mutual understanding between Nanjing and the outside world, according to officials of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Nanjing municipal government.
They also noted that the contacts have contributed to the rapid development of the economy and culture in Nanjing.
Nanjing will continue to develop its friendly exchanges with foreign cities in order to facilitate the common progress, they said.
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