Campers receive the mascots of Beijing’s sister cities during the 2016 Beijing Sister City Youth Camp. The camp was opened at Beijing Hyundai Motor Co Ltd in Shunyi District, Beijing, Oct. 26, 2016. [Photo by Yu Zhenhua/Qianlong]

The 2016 Beijing Sister City Youth Camp opened at Beijing Hyundai Motor Co Ltd in Shunyi District of Beijing on October 26, 2016.

According to Guo Wenjie, deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League of Beijing, a total of 135 young people from Beijing’s 35 sister cities of 32 countries participated in the fifth camp this year. From October 24 to 30, they will take part in the activities of cultural experience, community visit and city inspection in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province to learn the great strategic significance of coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Meanwhile, 2016 International Youth Organization Forum will be held during the camp. The 135 campers will discuss with the youth representatives from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province on the theme of “youth and future city” in the three aspects of “youth and smart city”, “youth and ecological city” and “youth and culture city”. The forum will contribute the youth’s wisdom to the construction of future cities and promote the cooperation and exchange among the youth.

Initiated in the name of “Beijing’s sister cities” in 2012, the International Youth Organization Forum and Beijing Sister City Youth Camp are two multilateral exchange activities for the youth around the world and they are held in late October in Beijing every year. So far, Beijing has 54 overseas sister cities and more than 1,000 Chinese and foreign youth from 40 sister cities and 47 youth organizations of 32 countries have participated in the two activities.

Source: english.qianlong.com