To celebrate the first anniversary of the establishment of the friendly and cooperative relationship between Chengdu and Moscow, as well as the settlement of China's giant pandas "Ru Yi" and "Ding Ding" in the Moscow Zoo, a series of events and activities, themed "Friendship between Moscow and Chengdu", was launched June 19 here in Chengdu, jointly by the Moscow city government, Chengdu Municipal Foreign Affairs Office and bureau of foreign economics and international relations of Moscow.

On the day, a conference to promote Moscow's business & trade and tourism, a luncheon, a ceremony to celebrate the first anniversary of the establishment of the friendly and cooperative relationship between Chengdu and Moscow and settlement of the giant pandas in Moscow Zoo, an evening gala and a Russian photo exhibition, etc., were staged one after another in the city.

At the evening gala, when famous Russian singer Vitas sang Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a household Chinese song, with his unique dolphin voice, all the audiences got highly excited.

Here are official statistics reflecting the increasing and further cooperation and exchanges between Chengdu and Russia in recent years.

In 2018, the total volume of imports and exports between Chengdu and Russia hit about RMB4.74 billion, a year-on-year increase of 37%. At the conference promoting Moscow's business and trade in Chengdu in 2018, the value of cooperative agreements exceeded RMB8 billion. In 2017, the China-Europe express rail cargo service was extended to Russia, and a total of 182 trains were operated between Chengdu and Moscow from January to May this year. Since the launch of the direct air link between Chengdu and Moscow in 2016, Russia has been seeing an increasing number of tourists from Chengdu. In 2018, Russia received nearly 56,300 visitors from Chengdu and the latter welcomed nearly 40,000 from the former, with a yearly increase of 45% and 89% respectively.