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City establishes strong ties with South America
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COOPERATION between China and South American countries has gradually turned from pure technical support to financial cooperation in many fields. With China’s President Xi Jinping visiting Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, the cooperation is expected to develop further and deeper.
Chengdu, a metropolis in western China’s Sichuan Province, is taking part in the transition. Chengdu has developed relations with many overseas cities within the past few years. It has a sister-city relationship with 23 foreign cities and has developed other cooperative relationships with 33 cities, including Recife, Itaipu and Amoreiras in Brazil and La Plata, Argentina.
The 72-hour visa-free stay policy in Chengdu enacted last September paved the way for further easy contacts between Chengdu and 51 entitled countries. Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile are on the list.
Alfredo, who is from Peru and has studied Sichuan cuisine for years in Chengdu, is thrilled by the new policy. The complicated visa application procedure impeded his family from visiting him for years. His mother is planning to bring a big group of friends and relatives to his graduation ceremony this year, thanks to the policy.
Having lived in Chengdu for years, Alfredo is already getting used to the life pace here.
Apart from scheduled study and work, Alfredo participates in local activities such as guang chang wu (plaza dance, referring to group dance in public plazas) at night.
“It is a way of enjoying life,” he said. “Chengdu has already become my second hometown.”
Of course, students like Alfredo will not be the only group benefiting from the policy.
The 72-hour visa-free stay policy will much benefit overseas businessmen with frequent visits to the city, said Cristiano Korbes, director of the international program of the Brazilian Footwear Association, who visited Chengdu with the footwear delegation from Brazil last September for a trade fair.
The delegation has established partnerships with many related companies in Chengdu after several visits, and Brazilian shoes have entered the Chengdu market. The 72-hour visa program helps strengthen the partnerships, said Korbes.
Considering the willingness and fast development of Chengdu, there is a huge potential for further cooperation between the city and Argentina, said Alfredo Carlos Bascou, minister of the Argentinian embassy to China, who visited the city in March. He hopes that more substantive cooperation projects can be reached in various fields.
With years of development, Chengdu has not only become a center of science and technology, trade, finance and business, but also a center of transportation and information in western China.
More than half of the Fortune 500 companies have set up branches in Chengdu, while 10 countries have set consulates in the city. The city tops the western China region in both foreign investment and the number of branches of overseas organizations.
A non-stop flight from Chengdu to San Francisco launched this June, bringing the number of passenger and cargo flights at Chengdu Airport to 230. Some 74 of the flights are international, forming an international network covering Europe, America, Australia and Asia.
“With the development of trade and communications between the city and South America, the air corridor between Chengdu and South America will definitely be in the plan,” said a staff member of the Chengdu Logistics Office, who expressed optimism that non-stop flights from Chengdu to South America would start in the near future.
Though the cooperation between Chengdu and South America in business and trade has just started, the South American culture is already familiar to many Chengdu residents, thanks to many years of cultural communications.
Cigar clubs and tango classes, for example, are seemingly everywhere on the streets in Chengdu.
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