On the morning of September 26, the First China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture and Tourism Expo (the Expo) opened in Yinchuan. Maruyama Tatsuya, Governor of Shimane Prefecture of Japan, an international friendship city of Ningxia, delivered a video speech at the World Wine Conference.

In his speech, Maruyama Tatsuya expressed his warm congratulations on the opening of the Expo. He mentioned that Shimane Prefecture is committed to building a brand of “beauty resort for skincare” and its wine industry enjoys a certain foundation. Given that chateau tours are very popular, he hoped to promote Shimane’s cultural and tourist characteristics and raise its popularity at home and abroad. Over the past 30 years since the establishment of international friendship city relations between Shimane Prefecture and Ningxia, the two sides have had frequent and extensive exchanges in education, economy, healthcare and environmental protection and regular projects in people-to-people exchanges and scientific and technological cooperation. Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides helped each other and overcame many difficulties together. Aiming to forge closer ties, Shimane and Ningxia will adapt to the times and optimize ways of communication, so as to bring the friendly relations to a new level.

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Ningxia and Shimane Prefecture established international friendship city relations in September 1993. Since then the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides have been flourishing. Ningxia and Shimane Prefecture have jointly won the “Exchange and Cooperation Award for International Friendship Cities” and “Exchange and Cooperation Award for International Friendship Cities to China” presented by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, setting a model for sub-national exchanges between China and Japan.