Pengzhou events, friendly ties boosting international reach

Bailu is a French-styled town, where French missionary Annet-Théophile Pinchon built a Roman Catholic college in the 1860s. Photos Provided to China Daily

The city of Pengzhou has hosted a number of international cultural events in the past years.

Pengzhou, a city in the northwest of Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, is playing an active role in international cooperation and exchanges.

The city has just held the 2016 Chengdu International Sister Cities Youth Music Festival, at which six teams from countries including Russia, Israel, the United States, Japan and Mexico put on an entertaining music show for the public.

Gilad Segev, a popular Israeli musician who participated in the music festival, spoke highly of the event and said he regards Pengzhou as a perfect location to hold the event.

"The city has deepened its friendship with other cities around the world and fully demonstrated its unique character that combines both tradition and fashion, urban and rural, and rapid growth and laid-back lifestyles throughout the event," he said.

A series of other activities were also held at the music festival, including an outdoor sports challenge and a mountain scenery photo contest, as well as a feast of German craft beer.

According to the Pengzhou publicity department, the city has hosted more events in recent years to help develop itself into a modern and international city.

Officials said that hosting international events makes the city better-known to the world, and leads to more cooperation and exchanges with foreign countries, which as a result will boost the city's social and economic development.

Pengzhou has a long history of foreign exchanges.

In 1860, French missionary Annet-Th??ophile Pinchon went to Bailu, a small town in Pengzhou, and he later built Annunciation Seminary, a Roman Catholic college, in the town.

The campus became an architectural landmark and is now listed as a cultural relic under State protection.

Bailu has hosted a French classical music festival for the past three years and it is preparing to host the event again this year, with famous musicians from both China and France invited to perform at the festival.

Last year, the town established friendly relations with Moret-sur-Loing in France.

The Pengzhou government has invited delegates from the French town to participate in the third Tianfu Ancient Town Art Festival in Chengdu this year, and Pengzhou will also send a troupe to perform at the event.

Pengzhou has established friendly ties, or sister-city relationships, with 10 foreign cities - including Ipswich in Australia, Murzzuschlag in Austria and Vercelli in Italy - more than any other county-level city in Sichuan province.

In May, Han Yi, Party chief of Pengzhou, met with a visiting mission from Seine-et-Marne, in France's Ile-de-France region, to discuss possible cooperation in the fields of tourism, trade, culture, agriculture and environmental protection.

The two sides signed an agreement on friendly cooperation.

Jean-Jacques Barbaux, president of the general council of Seine-et-Marne and head of the French delegation, said he was impressed by Pengzhou's development potential and its natural environment.

"Pengzhou is both a young and old city. It has a 4,000-year history as well as fashionable modern styles," he said.

"The French-style town of Bailu makes us feel at home. There is a Chinese saying that though they are born 1,000 miles apart, souls which are one shall meet," he added.

In the same month, Pengzhou sent a delegation to New Zealand, Vanuatu and Australia, during which Pengzhou Mayor Dong Li and Onen Gavika, mayor of Luganville in Vanuatu, signed an agreement for friendly cooperation.

The agreement makes Pengzhou the first city in Sichuan to have a friendly relationship with a city in the South Pacific islands. Pengzhou also reached an agreement with Ipswich, its sister city in Australia, to deepen cooperation in trade and education as well as in events.

In July, Pengzhou signed an agreement with Oakville, a suburban town in Southern Ontario, Canada. The two sides are scheduled to establish friendly ties next year, and they will conduct friendly exchanges and deepen cooperation in education, biomedicine, aerospace power and tourism.

Contact the writers at pengchao@chinadaily.com.cn

Pengzhou intro

Pengzhou is 25 kilometers to the northwest of downtown Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. It covers an area of 1,421 square kilometers and has a population of 810,000.

It is known as the "hometown of peonies". The earliest written record detailing the planting of the flower in the city dates from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It remains a specialty of the city to this day and has become the city flower of Pengzhou.

The city is a key part of the Longmen Mountain ecology tourism belt. Famous tourist spots in Pengzhou include the Longmenshan National Geological Park, Baishuihe National Nature Reserve, Baishuihe National Forestry Park and Longmenshan National Scenic Spot Zone.

The city lies at the intersection of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and is at the core of the Chengdu-Deyang-Mianyang economic zone, a major growth engine in West China.

(China Daily 09/06/2016 page20)