LONG BEACH  -- On February 2, Qingdao image promotion and the lantern festival celebrations was held in Long Beach, California, the sister city of Qingdao.

More than 100 people from city of Long Beach, teachers and students from California State University Long Beach attended the ceremony. Xu Shucheng, director of the Qingdao Municipal Information Office, expressed a warm welcome to all the guests attending the event in a video speech, and wished everyone a happy new year.

Xu Shucheng said that Long Beach is Qingdao's first sister city in the Americas. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1985, the two cities have carried out rich exchanges and cooperation in the fields of port, economy and trade, education, culture and youth. Since last year, the interaction between the two cities has become more frequent and exchanges have become closer. In July, the two cities held celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of friendly ports between Qingdao Port and Long Beach Port. We also set up Nishan Bookstore at Long Beach University; "Online awards ceremony; in November, we held the annual luncheon of the Long Beach-Qingdao Friendship Cities Association, the Qingdao Oil Painting Exhibition, and the Qingdao City Image Exhibition also appeared in the US International Education Week. As a continuation of the series of activities, the Qingdao Sister Cities Spring Festival Gala was held at CSULB, aiming to further deepen the cultural exchanges between the two cities and enhance the friendship between the people of the two cities.

Student Zoe Huang played the guzheng at the event and received warm applause.

Participants said that Long Beach City and Qingdao City have maintained close ties, and the two sides have carried out fruitful cooperation in promoting economic and trade exchanges, information exchange, cultural exchanges and training. Everyone maintains confidence in the friendship between the two cities and the sustainable development of Sino-US relations.

The participants showed great interest in the promotional brochures and postcards of Qingdao's city image, and also enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the Chinese New Year.