Published on: 2026-07-31
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
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Beijing, July 31 /Xinhua/ — On the shore of a lake in the International Friendship Park in the Chinese city of Nanjing stands a bronze sculpture “Volga,” which was gifted by Yaroslavl, Russia. It has become a symbol of friendship not only between the two cities but also between the peoples of the two countries.
The sculpture “Volga” is a stylized female figure in dynamic motion, as if rising above a river wave. The folds of her dress seamlessly blend into the flow of the water element, symbolizing freedom, the strength of a noble impulse, and the aspiration for growth. The work was created by Elena Paskhina, a sculptor from Yaroslavl and a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
In Nanjing, the sculpture is also called “the Hand of Friendship.” Yaroslavl is located on the Volga, the “mother river” of Russia, while Nanjing lies on the Yangtze, one of the “mother rivers” of the Chinese nation. The sculpture symbolically represents a “handshake” between two great rivers.
The Volga is not just a picturesque attraction in the park; it serves as a testimony to the deepening of interregional cooperation between China and Russia. In recent years, thanks to mechanisms such as the Yangtze-Volga cooperation format and hundreds of sister city agreements, China-Russia regional interaction has expanded in all directions, giving a strong impetus to the sustainable, healthy, and stable development of bilateral relations.
“Yaroslavl Oblast is interested in further developing ties with China in industry, trade, education, culture, and tourism,” its governor Mikhail Yevrayev told reporters. According to him, the region is ready to welcome Chinese tourists and simultaneously expand practical cooperation between enterprises and educational institutions.
As M. Evraev said, there is a Chinese cultural and educational center operating in the region, and ties with Chinese enterprises in mechanical engineering and the chemical industry are being developed.
Yaroslavl Oblast is the heart of the tourist route “Golden Ring.” According to the governor, the region aims to ensure convenient access to tourist attractions by water, air, road, and rail, as well as to develop hotels, public spaces, and services, and to promote itself more broadly to attract tourists from Russia, China, and other countries around the world.
Another key region of the “Golden Ring” — the Vladimir Oblast — has strong ties with China due to its sister city relationships. Several years ago, the city of Vladimir established official sister city relations with the Yuzhong district of Chongqing city, and later formed partnerships with the city of Wuhan in Hubei province and the city of Changzhou in Jiangsu province, both located in the Yangtze River basin, thereby deeply integrating the region into the “Yangtze – Volga” cooperation framework.
“We have a number of partnership projects with cities from different provinces /PRC/,” noted the governor of Vladimir Oblast, Alexander Avdeev, explaining that these are projects in the fields of economy, education, and student exchanges.
According to the head of the region, Vladimir Oblast imports a lot from China, such as industrial equipment, machinery, and polymer materials. “But in recent years we have seen… that Chinese companies also purchase materials, raw materials, and goods from us. Vladimir has good wood processing, so plywood and wood materials are supplied to China,” he said.
Vladimir Oblast is also aiming to increase tourist traffic. “Last year we participated in a tourism exhibition-conference in China to promote the Golden Ring routes and Vladimir Oblast,” said A. Avdeev.
According to him, one of the museums in Suzdal has passed the China Friendly accreditation. “I hope that other museums will also have a full description in Chinese, then organizing tourist groups will be much easier. We will strive to have more Chinese friends visit us and take an interest in our history,” the governor concluded.
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