Fifteenth Anniversary of Zhenjiang China-Japan Friendship Garden

In April, the China-Japan Friendship Garden permeated with fragrance of flowers and thronged with visitors became the place where people in Zhenjiang felt most strongly that spring was in the air. The spring of 2007 happened to be the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Zhenjiang China-Japan Friendship Garden and also the 35th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. In the past 15 years, though China-Japan relations experienced twists and turns, the friendly exchange activities at the Garden never stopped. The recent “ice-breaking” and “ice-thawing” visits exchanged between the leaders of the two countries have signaled that the spring of China-Japan relations has come, and also added vitality to the friendly exchanges between the localities of the two countries. In such a season, activities in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the China-Japan Friendship Garden were grandly held in Zhengjiang.

I

On April 16, cherry trees all over the hills were in full bloom under the warm sunlight. The citizens of Zhenjiang in folk costumes lined the streets to welcome the guests from the Japanese friendship cities. Leaders of Zhenjiang among more than 1,000 people of various circles including nearly 100 Japanese guests who formed the 24th citizens delegation of Tsu, the 28th goodwill delegation of Kurasiki, the Mimasaka City friendship delegation, the delegation of the Toyo Calligraphy Art Association, and representatives of the Japanese-funded enterprises, Japanese experts, scholars and friendly personages in Zhenjiang gathered at the Friendship Square of the Garden to take part in the celebration. That day the Garden became an ocean of great joy. People were all smiles and their hearts brimming over with friendship. The opening ceremony of the 15th China-Japan Friendship Garden Festival was presided over by Xue Feng, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Zhenjiang Municipal Government. Vice Mayor Chen Jianshe gave an ebullient speech. Li Guozhong, secretary-general of the Zhenjiang Municipal Government, and Kaori Ito, vice mayor of Kurasiki, unveiled the first-day cover in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Garden. With passionate mixed chorus My Home Is in Zhenjiang as a prelude, wonderful performances with either distinctive Chinese Jiangnan folk features or Japanese flavour won bursts of applause. Accompanied by the melodious folk music, folk artists demonstrated their skill of making clay figurines and paper cuts and gave what they had just made to the Japanese guests. Among the souvenirs there was a piece of paper-cut with the designs of the Great Wall, plum blossoms, the Fuji Mountain and cherry blossoms expressing the Chinese and Japanese people’s common aspiration for friendship between the two countries. When the music of joyous dance The Happy Setting Sun was played, the Chinese and Japanese guests as well as local people joined in the dance, pushing the atmosphere of friendly reunion to a height. After the performance, the guests and hosts together planted plum and cherry trees symbolizing China-Japan friendship. Mayor Xu Jinrong gave a speech at the reception in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Garden that evening.

Among those from Japan who took part in the celebration were old friends who had deep affection for Zhenjiang as well as new ones who came to Zhengjiang for the first time out of admiration of this famous city, hale and hearty old people as well as lovely and cute children, government officials who shouldered the tasks of exchanges as well as nongovernmental personages who worked hard for Japan-China friendship. Kenmei Harada，member of the Kurasiki City Assembly (former deputy speaker) andsecretary general of the Japan-China Friendship Association (JCFA), has taken part in the activities related to the Garden for 11 times since he began in 1997. He is not only a zealous participant, but also an active organizer. In the past 11 years, he successively organized more than 600 Japanese people to visit Zhenjiang and take part in these activities. He said that he had fallen in deep love with Zhenjiang and that each time he visited Zhenjiang, he had expectations and got fulfillment. He said that each year the Garden got more beautiful and Zhenjiang more prosperous. Every time he took part in the activity, he would make a video recording of the whole activity. After returning home he would produce a documentary by editing the recording, and give it to the two TV stations in Kurasiki for broadcast so that more people would learn about the Garden and the changes in Zhenjiang. Through such efforts by enthusiastic friendly personages like Mr. Harada, more Japanese citizens came to know Zhenjiang better and began to like the city. Motoo Moritoki, head of the Mimasaka City friendship delegation, said, in addition to adults they also had 12 primary school pupils on the delegation in the hope that through taking part in the activities at the Garden, having get-togethers and football matches with the pupils in Zhenjiang and staying at the homes of the Chinese pupils, the Japanese children would foster consciousness of international exchanges and experience the friendliness of the Chinese people so as to let the cause of China-Japan friendship last for generations. A citizen from Tsu who visited China for the first time said with emotion that he knew very little about China in the past, but through the activity, he had a new understanding about China and began to like the country. He said that he was deeply touched by the warmth and friendliness of the Zhenjiang people, and that this was really a “happy visit”. The citizens of Zhenjiang were also full of expectation and enthusiasm for the activity. That day they were in their holiday best and came to the Garden together with their friends. Zhao Yuefen, a retired teacher, was one of them. As a member of the Waist Drum Dance Team of the Jingkou Retired Teachers’ Association, she had taken part in the activity twice. She made video recording of the activity and wrote articles and uploaded them onto the internet. After the opening ceremony, the Japanese guests and the citizens of Zhenjiang toured with great interest the Pagoda Hill where the Garden was located. On the top of the hill stood a brick pagoda built in the Ming Dynasty. On the walls of the pagoda were inscribed names of the people who made donations for planting plum and cherry trees each year. They looked for their names and felt very happy that they had done their bit for the construction of the Garden. To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Garden, the China (Zhenjiang) Postal Service issued on the spot the first-day covers.The Japanese guests and the citizens of Zhenjiang lined up for the postal workers to stamp the specially made Garden postmark on their first-day covers to keep as a lasting “then and there” memento.

II

In 1984, Zhenjiang and Tsu established friendship ties, becoming the first pair of friendship cities between Zhenjiang and Japan. Since then, Zhenjiang has carried out friendly exchanges with several other Japanese cities. In the course of long-term contacts, both sides felt that it was necessary to have a fixed base and a regular programme for friendly exchanges to further consolidate and develop China-Japan friendly relations. In 1992, the Zhenjiang Municipal People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries put forward a proposal to build the China-Japan Friendship Garden and received positive response from Japanese friends in Tsu, Tokyo, Tsuyama，Atsugi and Shibatamachi. The Toyo Calligraphy Art Association put a fund-raising advertisement with the title of “Do You Want to Plant Your Cherry Trees in China” in the Asahi Shimbun. In the following several months, the citizens of these cities donated money for purchasing cherry saplings (including planting and looking-after fees). The first batch of donators reached over 700, among whom there were celebrities of high prestige, old friends of the Zhenjiang and also many people who had never been to Zhenjiang. At the same time the Zhenjiang Municipal Government went into action and selected Dingshishan Hill in the city’s eastern suburb as the location of the Garden, and called on the citizens to donate money for planting plum trees. On April 7, 1993, the opening ceremony of the China-Japan Friendship Garden funded by both the Chinese and Japanese sides and the First Tree-planting was held on the Dingshishan Hill. Chikoho Matsumoto，president of the Toyo Calligraphy Art Association; Kanji Horozawa，president of the JCFA of Atsugi; Shigeo Katsurayama，executive director of the Tsu Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Shinsen Hashimoto, famous Japanese painter, and Shunichi Wada，principal of the Tsu City Ozono Popular Song School，led delegations to attend the opening ceremony. Qian Yongbo, the then secretary of the Zhenjiang Municipal Committee of the CPC, and Fang Zhizhuo, the then mayor, and the Japanese guests respectively unveiled the stone tablet with the name of the Garden and the stone monument of tree-planting on the centenary anniversary of the establishment of the Tsu Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Chinese and Japanese representatives planted plum and cherry trees in front of the stone tablet and the monument. The leaders of the Zhenjiang Municipal Government presented the Japanese representatives with honorary certificates for participation in the first tree-planting. The two sides decided to designate a day in April as the Garden’s “tree-planting day” and commemorative activities would be held jointly in Zhenjiang.

Since then, every spring, the Garden becomes the place where the Chinese and Japanese citizens gather together to have cultural exchanges for peace and friendship. On April 11, 1994, Tsu City organized 7 delegations consisting of 175 people to visit Zhenjiang to attend the second tree-planting in the Garden to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the twinning of friendship-city ties between Zhenjiang and Tsu. When SARS was spreading in China in 2003, the government of Tsu and the JCFA of Kurasiki still sent delegations to Zhenjiang so that the activity of the 11th Plum and Cherry Blossoms Festival could be held as scheduled. At the 12th Festival, the Sahoyama Bass Drum Team of the Nara Social Welfare Institute gave wonderful performances, the resounding drum beats well expressing the indomitable spirit of the humankind struggling against the turbulent sea. That year the Zhenjiang-Mimasaka Friendship Library with a collection of 8,000 books built with donations totaling 1.11 million Japanese yen by Mimasaka City was opened. In the spring of 2006 when China-Japan relations suffered setbacks, Zhenjiang continued to develop friendly relations of mutual trust and benefit with the Japanese local governments and nongovernmental organizations. Japanese friends including Mayor Naohisa Matsuda of Tsu, Mayor Kenzo Furuiti of Kurasiki, Mayor Toshiro Miyamoto of Mimasaka as well as speakers and deputy speakers of the city assemblies and presidents and vice presidents of the JCFA from Zhenjiang’s friendship cities and cities with friendly relations gathered in Zhenjiang to celebrate the 14th Plum and Cherry Festival. These plum and cherry trees that have experienced wind and rain are now growing sturdily under sunshine.

III

The Dingshishan Hill where the Garden is located lies in Zhenjiang’s ancient canal scenery belt. During the reign of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, the Dingshishan Hill became an important landmark of the eastern entrance of Zhenjiang since the Sengjia Pagoda named after Sengjia, an eminent monk from the Western Regions who was buried beneath the pagoda, was moved there. But for a long time, the hill was left in desolation. Though it was not far from the downtown, few people went there. After the opening of the Garden, the Zhenjiang Municipal Government formally renamed the area Pagoda Hill Park (also known as the China-Japan Friendship Garden) and began to build it up according to plan. So far, about 5,000 plum and cherry trees donated by the Chinese and Japanese citizens have been planted. The Gong Zizhen Poem Tablet, the Student Pavilion, the Red Plum Blossoms Pavilion, the Nanmu Fragrance Pavilion, the Qitian Lake and the Cherry Blossoms Pavilion interspersed among the trees, presenting the features of both Chinese and Japanese gardens. In February, the plum trees blossom charmingly despite coldness. In April cherry trees bloom in profussion. To enjoy plum and cherry blossoms in the Garden has become a fashion. The Garden is becoming more and more well-known. This friendship theme park and the base of international exchanges, built with funds from both the Chinese and Japanese side for the good of the public, is an ideal place of leisure for the citizens of Zhenjiang. Its building has become a much-told tale of friendly exchanges between the two countries. Near the Friendship Square of the Garden there is a pavilion named “He” (Harmony) built with the fund donated by Kurasiki on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the twinning of friendship-city ties, reflecting the Chinese and Japanese people’s common ideal and pursuit of peaceful coexistence and harmonious development.

Peace is the tide in the world, and friendship the aspiration of the people. As long as the people of various countries with different cultures communicate with one another sincerely, the wounds caused by wars can be healed and the bridge linking the people’s hearts built. All the more so are China-Japan relations. At the opening ceremony, Ms. Shinsen Hashimoto said with emotion: “We come here in a very happy mood like the cherry blossoms in full bloom. May the friendship between the people of our two countries ever develop with the growing prosperity of the Garden.” The history of the Garden in the past 15 years has fully proved it. The friendly exchange activities at the Garden will continue, adding a beautiful page to the annals of China-Japan friendly exchanges.