Jining in East China's Shandong province is known as the hometown of five great sages: Confucius, Mencius, Yanzi, Zengzi, and Zisi. The city is a crucial birthplace of Chinese civilization and the origin of Confucian culture. Since establishing friendship city relations with Japan's Ashikaga city in 1984, Jining has used its rich cultural resources to steadily advance its sister city initiatives, leading to a significant increase in the number of friendly cities.

It has established sister city relationships with 30 cities in 22 countries. Jining has set up overseas Nishan Book House in collaboration with Ashikaga, Japan; Nonsan, Republic of Korea; Fronsac, France; and two others.

The city has initiated the Language and Culture Exchange Program with Pskov in Russia, and also organized photo exhibitions of Confucius culture in friendship cities like Ashikaga, Yeongju, and Pickering in Canada. Notably, Jining has donated large Confucius stone sculptures to Gold Coast in Australia and Osasco in Brazil, serving as enduring symbols of friendship between Jining and overseas cities.

By using the sister city platform, Jining has attracted international investment, trade, tourism, education, and technological cooperation, drawing in capital, technology, talent, and advanced management expertise. Renowned companies such as Komatsu, Meiji Pharmaceuticals, and Ajinomoto have established operations in Jining, following the example set by sister cities. To date, sister cities have enabled over 100 projects with investments totaling hundreds of billions of yuan.

Moreover, several outstanding enterprises from Jining have successfully expanded into overseas sister cities.

An overhead view of Jining City in East China's Shandong Province. [Photo/Shandian News]