Chinese Embassy to the U.S. Holds Welcome Reception Prior to Opening of 2014 U.S.-China Sister Cities Conference

On the evening of March 26, 2014, Chinese Embassy to the U.S. held a welcome reception in the embassy for the guests from both China and the U.S. in honor of their presence at the 2014 China-U.S. Sister Cities Conference. Honorable Mr. Lu Kang, Minister of Chinese Embassy, Mr. Xie Yuan, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Mary Kane, President and CEO of Sister Cities International, Mike Honda, Federal Congressman of California delivered speeches during the reception. Around 400 leaders and representatives of local governments from states, provinces and cities of both sides attended the reception.

Lu Kang, Minister of Chinese Embassy in U.S. delivering speech 

Xie Yuan, Vice President of CPAFFC delivering speech

Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs delivering speech

Mary Kane, President and CEO of Sister Cities International delivering speech

Mike Honda, Federal Congressman of California delivering speech

During the reception, 4 pairs of sister cities signed Memorandum of Understanding. They are Jinan City of Shandong Province with Sacramento City of California, Liuzhou City of Guangxi Autonomous Region with Cincinnati of Ohio, Wanzhou District of Chongqing Municipality with Waynesboro of Virginia and Zhengding County of Hebei Province with Muscatine of Iowa. Kunming City of Yunnan Province and Schnectady of New York State formally signed agreement on establishing sister cities relationship.

Signing Ceremony of establishment of sister cities

The atmosphere of the reception has been pulled to a climax by singing the China-U.S friendship song Peony and Rose in both English and Chinese by American students from the University of Iowa and the Chinese students studying in the University of Maryland. During the reception, it was proposed by the American side that every participant prayed for the passengers of the missing Malaysian Airline flight together.

Chinese students studying in the University of Maryland singing Peony and Rose

Student of University of Iowa Performing English version