On the 18th and 19th, delegations from Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China visited Andong City.
This visit was made to discuss the practical and friendly exchange projects related to the ‘Andong City and Xi’an City in Humanities, Culture, and Tourism MOU’ which was signed last September. The Xi'an City delegations that visited Andong included Li Xiaoyan, Deputy Director of the Xi'an City Foreign Affairs Office, Deputy Director of the Water Culture Bureau, Vice Director of the Xi'an Chanba Ecological Zone Management Committee, and Directors of the Education Bureau and Foreign Affairs Office. Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi Province, has an area of 10,108㎢ and a population of 13.16 million.
Xi’an is an international tourist city and world-historical city with many world heritage sites, such as China's Belt and Road hub cities and the Terracotta Warriors. Cooperation is being promoted through mutual visits to major forums and international events, such as attending the 18th World Historic Cities Conference held in Andong in 2022, and the Andong City delegation attending the Eurasian Economic Forum held in Xi'an in 2023.
At the meeting, Andong City's culture, festivals, and international forums were introduced, and cultural heritage management cases and participation in mutual academic conferences and forums were also introduced. Mutual participation in Andong International Mask Dance Festival and Xi'an City Wall New Year Lantern Festival and city promotion as well as 2024 Humanities Value Forum Xi'an City's participation and support in the invitation and establishment of the World Humanities Cities Network were also mentioned in the conference. Moreover, exchange projects and exchange plans in the field of culture and tourism, as well as international exchange and cooperation plans were also further discussed to have more details plans for the near future.
After finishing the meeting, the Xi'an City delegations visited the City Folk Museum and the night view of Wolyeong Bridge, and in the next day, they visited the World Confucian Culture Museum, the World Cultural Heritage site Dosan Seowon, and Hahoe Village. After the trip, the delegations retired home.
This visit of Xi'an delegations was expected to further strengthen the relationship between the two cities by promoting practical friendly exchange projects in a wide range of fields, including culture, tourism, humanities, youth, sports, and people-to-people exchanges.
Andong Mayor Kwon Ki-chang welcomed the Xi'an City delegations, and stated, "Andong City and Xi'an City have signed a sisterhood relationship based on the commonality of being a UNESCO World Heritage city and a tourist city. We have continued strong friendly exchanges”, he added, “I hope that this will be an opportunity for deep exchange and cooperation to achieve coexistence and development”.
Meanwhile, Andong City and Xi'an City have been interacting in various ways, starting with festival cultural exchange in 2010. Since then, Andong City and Xi’an City continued to maintain this good relationship, including participating in the Andong International Mask Dance Festival and Andong Day, a marathon competition in both cities, and a Korea-China-Japan craft exchange exhibition, and establishing a sisterhood relationship online in 2020.
