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Xiamen, China

The Wellington Xiamen sister city relationship has a strong focus on culture and education cooperation and collaboration.

Xiamen is a port city located on China’s south-east coast with an estimated population of over 5.3 million residents. The name Xiamen translates as “door to the house”, alluding to the city’s centuries-long status as a gateway to China.

With a great natural harbour, Xiamen was one of the first ports to host foreign consulates and missions outside of the capital due to its ideal climate and attractive quality of life.

In the 1980’s the city became one of China’s original Special Economic Zones which opened the city up to foreign trade and made the city an attractive place to invest and do business. Despite its small size, Xiamen has one of the highest rates of foreign investment in China.

Xiamen is consistently placed among China’s top ten most liveable cities, owing to its urban design, safety and air quality (compared to larger cities like Shanghai and Beijing).

Xiamen also has a thriving film industry, home to China’s Golden Rooster Awards (known as the Chinese Oscars) and Film Festival.

How the relationship began

In the early 1980s, Wellington City Council asked the Chinese Embassy about setting up friendly city links with a city in China, after a trip by then Prime Minister David Lange.

Xiamen was proposed as a potential friendly city, because of the similarities between the two cities.

On 23 June 1987, Mr Zou Erjun, Mayor of Xiamen, visited Wellington and signed the Sister City Relationship Agreement with then Mayor of Wellington Jim Belich.

In 1998, the Wellington Xiamen Association was set up to support and encourage the relationship. The association has been instrumental in developing a healthy and interactive relationship between the two cities, including culture and education exchanges, as well as library exchanges and trade partnerships.

Highlights

Our engagement is broad, ranging from cooperation in industry, trade, tourism, agriculture, science and technology, culture and arts, education, and sports.

Some highlights include:

  • visits by civic and business delegations
  • mayoral delegations
  • medical training for Xiamen doctors in Wellington
  • trade agreement with Seashine Group
  • cultural and artistic exchanges
  • teacher exchanges and scholarships and joint programmes between Xiamen University and Victoria University of Wellington
  • screen sector cooperation.