Editor's note: Amity between the people holds the key to sound state-to-state relations. China Daily will come out with a series of stories highlighting Chinese cities' special connections with sister cities, mutual understanding, trust and friendship between peoples of different countries and cultural backgrounds, and shining light on "city diplomacy". From Wuhan's Yellow Crane Tower to a modern art museum in Duisburg, these landmark buildings narrate stories of the history of the sister cities.
The Chinese city of Wuhan and the German city of Duisburg joined hands in to become the first pair of sister cities between China and Germany. Decades have passed, and people still remember that this enduring friendship originated from a letter written by a German woman. In the s, Germany assisted in the construction of a cold-rolling steel plant in Wuhan.
At that time, approximately German engineers and their families lived in Wuhan, with the majority hailing from Duisburg. One day, a German engineer and his wife took a walk along the Yangtze River. Seeing the scenery where the Han River meets the Yangtze River, the wife couldn't help but think of her hometown, Duisburg, which is situated at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers and is also an industrial city.
Upon returning, she immediately wrote a letter to the then-mayor of Duisburg, urging for a sister-city relationship between Duisburg and Wuhan, according to the local Wuhan newspaper, the Changjiang Daily.
It is an important industrial city with an excellent geographical location and convenient transportation by land, water, and air. Duisburg, on the other hand, is a significant industrial city in the Ruhr area of western Germany.
