On January 8, Vice President Xie Yuan met with the Mayor Esko Lotvonen, together with his delegation of Rovaniemi Municipal Government of Finland at the CPAFFC.

Vice President Xie Yuan firstly introduced CPAFFC’s efforts to promote cooperation and exchanges between local governments from China and other countries in recent years. The friendship ties between Rovaniemi and Ha’erbin, and Beijing’s host of 2022 Winter Olympics, provide huge potential in ice sports cooperation between Rovaniemi, the Santa Claus hometown at the Arctic Circle, and its counterparts in China.  

Mayor Esko Lotvonen responded that we have witnessed the long lasting friendship between Finland and China. In this context, Rovaniemi enjoys abundant cooperation opportunities with Chinese cities in similar features. For example, Rovaniemi will play a key role in advancing ice sports development in Ha’erbin which attaches great importance to it. Moreover, the kick-off of direct flight between Rovaniemi and Beijing in 2019 will bring an increasing number of Chinese tourists to our destination. I am still impressed by the joint singing of Ode to Peace by our Santa Claus and Beijing Philharmonic Choir led by CPAFFC at our traditional Christmas Lighting Ceremony in Rovaniemi, on November 18, 2017. In short, we look forward to enhancing our cooperation and exchanges with CPAFFC in the future.