Beijing establishes sister-city ties with 33 capitals

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BEIJING, Jan. 13 -- Yang Liuyin, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal People\'s Government, said on Wednesday that Beijing has become sister cities of 33 capitals of other nations and will strive to raise the number to 50 by 2008.

Yang mentioned that Beijing municipal government has always attached much importance to the sister city project. Since Beijing and Tokyo became sister cities in 1979, the project has been developing rapidly. In 2005 alone, Madrid (Spain), Athens (Greece), Budapest (Hungary), Bucharest (Romania), Havana (Cuba) and Manila (the Philippines) became Beijing\'s sister cities.

Yang stressed that these six new sister cities put an end to the embarrassing stagnant situation of the sister city project in recent years and filled the blank of sister cities in Eastern Europe and Central America, which will help build a more reasonable structure for the sister city project.

In an effort to accelerate opening up to the world and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Olympic host cities, Beijing municipal government focused on assigning delegations related to preparation for the Olympics. The city received 57 foreign municipal delegations in 2005, an increase of 19%. Municipal leaders participated in 666 foreign-related activities, rising 17%. Frequent visits among senior leaders of global cities have greatly pushed forward preparatory works for Olympic security, language service, TV relay, volunteer service and Olympic promotions. Dieser Text stammt von: http://www.china-guide.de