Celia Wade-Brown, the mayor of Wellington in New Zealand, signs her name using a Chinese brush in Xiamen, Fujian province on Feb 8. [Photo / Chen Juanjuan / xmnn.cn]

Celia Wade-Brown, the mayor of Wellington in New Zealand, paid a visit to Xiamen in east China’s Fujian province on Feb 8, in the hope of strengthening the sister-city ties between the two cities.

As the first mayor of Xiamen’s twinned cities to give a speech there, Wade-Brown soon warmed up the speech hall by greeting the audience in Chinese. She pinned high hopes to the continuation of active and intimate relations between the two cities and hoped that they could continue their 27 year history.

The highlight of the visit came when Wade-Brown donated 50 original English books to the Xiamen civic library. Since 2011, Xiamen has received more than 130 books from Wellington.

“Xiamen has established sister-city relationships with 18 cities abroad. The exchange of gifts, such as books, instruments and other cultural products is encouraged as a major measure to boost diverse communications. In this way, our citizens are able to know about the outside world.” said Zhang Jianhua, the vice president of Xiamen civic People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.