This year marks the 70thanniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Russia.
Henan Province and Samara Oblast State, both of great importance for the country's economy, have maintained sound exchanges and cooperation. Especially for Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province and Samara, the capital of Samara Oblast State, they enter the 17th year as a sister city to each other.
Though the name of Samara, the capital of the Russia’s Samara Oblast, is new to many Chinese, Soyuz, Mir Space Station and MiG aircraft may be known for all ages. Samara is the science and education center and production center of the Russian aerospace sector. Even the stadium where the World Cup was held in the city was renamed "Cosmos Arena" after the match.
Founded in 1586 in the heartland of the Volga River, Samara has a centuries-old history and rich cultural traditions. There is a friendship home with more than 100 ethnic customs and artistic traditions, which was opened in 2001, and Kuibyshev Square, Samara's main cultural and leisure center and one of the largest squares in Europe. It also has Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Maxim Gorki Theater, comprehensive library of Samara founded in 1860 and Samara Regional Art Museum which houses 16,000 works of art.
Samara is one of Russia's most important transport hubs, linking the shortest route from Central and Eastern Europe to Siberia, central Asia and Kazakhstan. Samara is an important river transport center of oil in Russia, and also plays a considerable role in air transportation. The largest airport on the Volga coast is Samara Kurumoch International Airport.
The friendship between Zhengzhou and Samara dates back to 1998. On June 23, 1998, a delegation composed of Samara City officials and representatives of a transformer factory came to Zhengzhou for a friendly visit and attended the opening ceremony of the joint-venture transformer factory. With initial contact and mutual understanding, the two sides maintained correspondence and reached the consensus of establishing sister-city relations in November 1998.
On April 11, 2002, Zhengzhou and Samara officially became sister cities. Since then, the two sides have maintained closer contact and constant exchanging visits, and carried out extensive and diversified exchanges in economy and trade, urban construction, culture and education.
