September 26-30, 2009 the official delegation of the city of Taganrog headed by the Mayor Fedyanin visited the city of
Jining , Shandong province, Peoples' Republic of China to participate in the events of the Jining International Confucius Culture Festival-2009.
September 27, 2009 at the Sheng Dou International Conference Center in presence of the local and regional press was held the reception of the Taganrog delegation by the Executive Vice-Mayor Cui Honggang. Mayor Fedyanin and Executive Vice-Mayor Cui made brief introductions of the persons present at the center, and came to mutual conclusion that Taganrog - the home city of the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov and
Jining - the home city of the great thinkers Confucius and Mencius, founders of Confucian culture have rich cultural heritage and have very good foundation for further cooperation and city-to-city exchanges. The Russian and Chinese cities will be looking forward to studying the directions for development of mutually beneficial multilateral cooperation in economy, trade, tourism, science, cultural and educational exchanges.
After the reception by the Executive Vice-Mayor Cui, the award ceremony of the winners and participants of
The 4th International Children's Art Competition "Anton Chekhov and Characters of his Works" took place at the Sheng Dou Conference Center. Mayor Fedyanin and Mr. Cui Honggang presented the symbolic medals and participation diplomas to winners and participants of the art contest. In 2009 more than 1300 artworks were sent by children from more than 20 countries for participation in the art contest dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of the Russian writer
Anton Chekhov . Sixteen school students of various age categories from the sister city of
Jining also took part in the contest, 3 of 16 artworks received the highest evaluation of the jury and were awarded the 1st place prize (in the junior, middle and senior age categories), the remaining 13 participants from Jining received diplomas and catalogs of the art contest.
September 29, 2009 the Mayor of Jining Zhang Zhenchuan received the Taganrog delegation. Mayor Zhang expressed his gratitude for the
very warm welcome extended by the Taganrog side in June 2009 and highlighted the fact that the city of Jining has been long following the policy of strengthening the relations with Russian Federation. "This year after we signed a partnership agreement between Taganrog and Jining, our relations with Russia became even closer and the number of areas where we cooperate is growing. The delegation of the Taganrog Local Government who arrived in Jining to take part at the International Confucius Culture Festival-2009, also participated in the award ceremony for participants of the
The 4th International Children's Art Competition "Anton Chekhov and Characters of his Works" from
Jining. This fully reflects your city's effort to strengthen enthusiasm and sincerity in our bilateral cooperation, will further enhance our city government, people-to-people mutual understanding and friendship, deepen bilateral cooperation in economy, culture, education and other areas" told Mayor Zhang.
In return, Mayor Fedyanin pointed out that the mutual exchanges that was started is based on friendship, mutual trust and growing exchanges in various areas. Nikolay Fedyanin congratulated the citizens of Jining on the occasion of the Peoples' Republic of China's 60th anniversary and on the achievements made by Jining in the areas of high technologies, building and city development, and in his turn expressed the hope and certainty in further mutual understanding and growing friendship cooperation between the two cities.