１０ｔｈ Ａｎｎｉｖｅｒｓａｒｙ ｏｆ Ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓｈｉｐ Ｃｉｔｙ Ｔｉｅｓ Ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ Ｑｉｑｉｈａｒ ａｎｄ Ｇｏｙａｎｇ Ｏｆ ＲＯＫ Ｃｅｌｅｂｒａｔｅｄ

Ｈｏｕ　Ｘｉａｏｈｕｉ

On April 21, 1998, Qiqihar and Goyang of the ROK formally twinned friendship-city ties. In the past decade, remarkable achievements have been made in the exchanges of high-level visits, nongovernmental cooperation, and exchanges and cooperation in the economic, cultural and other fields between the two cities. On July 20, 2008, grand celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of friendship-city relations between the two cities were held.

On the afternoon of July 20, Qiqihar was brightly decorated and resonant with deafening sound of gongs and drums. Officials of the CPC Municipal Committee and the Municipal Government, representatives of various social circles of the city and 67 guests belonging to five ROK delegations composed of officials of the Goyang municipal government, artists, chorus singers and citizens happily gathered together at the square of the Municipal Government to celebrate the anniversary.

In their enthusiastic speeches, Liu Gang, mayor of Qiqihar, and Kang Hyun Suk, mayor of Goyang, spoke highly of the profound friendship formed through frequent contacts between the governments and between the citizens of the two cities in the past decade, recalled gratifying results achieved in the exchanges and cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, urban construction, science, technology, education, health care, sports and tourism, and looked forward to the bright future—a new height of friendly cooperative relations between the two cities by taking the celebration of the 10th anniversary of friendship city ties as an opportunity to further deepen cooperation and exchanges in various fields.

At the celebration, mayors of the two cities signed a letter of confirmation of the 10th anniversary of the twinning of friendship ties between the two cities, expressing common aspirations of continuous friendship. Mayor Liu Gang presented the certificate of Honorary Citizen of Qiqihar and the key that symbolized openness of the city to Mayor Kang Hyun Suk, indicating a continuous development of friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two cities.

The rich and colourful activities included a celebration meeting, visits, tree planting, cultural and academic exchanges, entertainment, sightseeing, and economic and trade talks. Guests from Goyang visited such enterprises as Qiqihar Ruisheng Food Producing Co., Ltd.—a green food enterprise and Qiqihar Heavy CNC Equipment Co., Ltd. and had talks with them on cooperation in some projects. The ROK guests and their hosts together planted pine trees symbolizing lasting friendship between the two cities. The citizens of the two cities displayed their skills in painting and calligraphy. The wonderful performance given by the Qiqihar Circus that had toured many countries won waves of applause from the guests. Mayor Kang Hyun Suk visited Qiqihar University and had an informal discussion with the teachers and students, laying a good foundation for the two cities to jointly run educational courses. In the Zhalong Nature Reserve, the guests toured the “Great Wetland”, a rare large area of marshes in the world and watched red-crowned cranes under the first-grade state protection. There are only 16 crane species in the world, of which 9 inhabit in the Zhalong Wetland.

Exchanges between the two friendship cities, which started in the field of culture, have expanded to the fields of economy, trade, tourism and scientific and technological personnel exchange. During the celebrations, the delegation of the Goyang Municipal Government visited enterprises in Qiqihar and agreed on intention of cooperation in relevant projects with the Chinese side.

In the past decade, the two cities have carried out frequent cultural exchange. To every China Qiqihar Green Food Expo, Goyang sent delegations and gave performances at its opening ceremony. Cultural and art groups and sports delegations of Qiqihar often went to Goyang on performance and demonstration tours. In-depth exchanges were carried out between the government and schools of the two cities which frequently sent personages to give lectures and speeches on each others TV. In the past decade Qiqihar sent 60 students to Goyang to learn the Korean language. Rich and colourful cultural exchanges show the vigorous development of science, technology and culture of the two cities and have pushed the exchanges and cooperation between the two cities to a higher level.