Dunedin Mayor’s Delegation Visits Shanghai People’s Congress

On 19 October, Chen Jing, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and President of the Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, invited Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker and her delegation from Shanghai’s New Zealand sister city to visit the Shanghai People’s Congress. The delegation toured the meeting hall of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and gained an in-depth understanding of Shanghai’s practice of whole-process people’s democracy. Lu Weidong, Chair of the Supervision and Judicial Affairs Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress; Huang Hong, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Wang Wei, President of Bright Meat Group, attended the event.

Chen Jing briefed the delegation on Shanghai’s urban development achievements, the work of the Shanghai People’s Congress and the functional layout and operating mechanisms of the Standing Committee meeting hall. Short films were shown on site, presenting Shanghai’s urban landscape in an all-round way. He thanked Dunedin for the warm reception he received during his visit there in May this year, and said he was deeply impressed that the Dunedin City Council had set up a “Shanghai Room” in the municipal chambers and appointed a dedicated China affairs commissioner. He noted that over more than 30 years of sister-city relations, Shanghai and Dunedin have achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation across many fields. In recent years, more and more quality New Zealand products, such as Theland dairy, have continued to appear at the China International Import Expo, while Silver Fern Farms, which Bright Food Group operates in Dunedin, has also delivered outstanding results. Next year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of China–New Zealand diplomatic relations and the 100th anniversary of New Zealand friend Rewi Alley’s arrival in China. He looked forward to more economic, trade and people-to-people cooperation between the two cities and expressed the willingness to work with all sectors in Dunedin to carry forward the traditional friendship and pass on the Rewi Alley spirit from generation to generation.

Mayor Sophie Barker thanked Shanghai for its warm reception. During their stay in Shanghai, the delegation truly felt the city’s charm and the sincere sister-city friendship between the two cities. She said the sister-garden link between Yu Garden and Dunedin’s Lan Yuan has enabled people in the two places to know and understand each other across mountains and seas, and expressed the hope of continuing to deepen exchanges and mutual visits in various fields, consolidate the friendship and write new chapters in the story of friendship across mountains and seas.

That afternoon, Chen Jing and the delegation visited Yuyuan Station, billed as the most beautiful station on the Shanghai Metro, and Yu Garden. At Yuyuan Station, the delegation toured the “Metro Welcome Lounge”, a one-stop integrated service centre built by Shanghai Metro for domestic and international passengers that offers tax refunds, foreign currency exchange, travel information and other services. At Yu Garden, they watched a documentary on exchanges between Yu Garden and Dunedin’s Lan Yuan since the two became sister gardens; over the years the two gardens have carried out cooperation and exchanges on classical garden conservation and mutual learning of cultural heritage. The delegation also walked through Yu Garden, immersing itself in the beauty of classical Jiangnan gardens and directly experiencing Shanghai’s rich historical and cultural heritage. Shen Weiqiang, Vice President of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, and Xu Zhi, Executive Deputy Mayor of Huangpu District, accompanied the visits.

Delegation members also included Honey Lansbury, ecotourism manager (Māori representative) at the Otago Peninsula Trust, and Grant Robertson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago and former Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Source: Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (Shanghai Youxie) | Editor: Lin Tiancheng | Original: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kZRpNI0BSELJqdZn6tqQ9g

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