Paju-si Discusses Cooperation Plans with Delegation from Mudanjiang, China

Exploring Exchange Measures Including Attendance at Paju Jangdan Soybean Festival Opening Ceremony

Gyeonggi Paju City (Mayor Kim Kyung-il) announced on the 25th that a delegation of two people, including Zhao Wenzheng (52), Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, China, visited Paju City on the 21st.

Two delegates, including Zhao Yuanzheng, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, a sister city in China, visited Paju City on the 21st. Photo by Paju City

The Mudanjiang City delegation visited Paju for the first time in five years since direct exchanges between the two countries stopped due to COVID-19, and held discussions to promote friendly cooperation and activate economic exchanges between the sister cities.

Mudanjiang City is an overseas sister city of Paju City. Since the two cities signed a sister city agreement in 2005, they have promoted economic and cultural exchanges such as mutual delegation visits and dispatching youth history and culture exploration groups. Mutual visits continued until 2019, just before the outbreak of COVID-19, and in February 2020, they maintained ties by supporting 133 boxes of red ginseng concentrate, a specialty product of Paju City, to encourage COVID-19 patients and medical staff.

On the second day of the visit, the 22nd, the Mudanjiang delegation toured representative tourist sites of Paju City such as the Third Tunnel and Dora Observatory, and increased their understanding of sister city Paju by attending the Jangdan Bean Festival held at Imjingak Tourist Site. Starting with this rapidly arranged delegation visit following China’s recent visa-free policy announcement, exchanges between Paju City and China are expected to be revitalized.

Mudanjiang City is located in the northeastern region of China’s Heilongjiang Province, at the center of the Northeast Asian economic zone. It shares a 211 km land border with Russia, serving as an important hub connecting China and Russia’s Yanbian region.

Kim Tae-hoon, Director of the Administrative Safety Bureau, stated, “We expect Paju City, which is emerging as a future economic city in northern Gyeonggi, and Mudanjiang City, an important industrial city and transportation hub in northeastern China, to grow together through more active exchanges in the future.”

Zhao Wenzheng, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Mudanjiang City, responded, “We look forward to the friendship between the two cities, which has overcome difficult times, becoming even stronger in the future.”