Ｆｏｒｍｅｒ Ｍｏｎｇｏｌｉａｎ Ｐｒｅｓｉｄｅｎｔ Ｂａｇａｂａｎｄｉ Ｖｉｓｉｔｓ Ｃｈｉｎａ

At the invitation of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC)， a five-member delegation led by Natsag Bagabandi， former president of Mongolia， paid a friendship visit to China from March 24 to April 4， 2007.

Bagabandi served as president of Mongolia for two terms from 1997 till 2005， during which he paid two official visits to China and received the visits to Mongolia by two consecutive Chinese presidents， Jiang Zemin in 1997 and Hu Jintao in 2003. Bagabandi took his wife and ten-year-old grandson with him this time to get knowledge of new changes and development in China.

Though this was his first contact with the CPAFFC， Bagabandi seemed familiar with what the CPAFFC had been doing. During the short meeting with Wang Yunze， vice president of the CPAFFC who came to welcome the Mongolian delegation at the Beijing Capital International Airport on March 24， Bagabandi spoke highly of the achievements by the CPAFFC and Mongolian friendship organizations through the past decades. He encouraged the two sides to make more contributions to the friendship between the Mongolian and the Chinese people.

At the welcoming banquet hosted by Chen Haosu， president of the CPAFFC， Bagabandi expressed his appreciation for what the CPAFFC had done to push forward the Mongolian-Chinese friendship cause and emphasized the special role played by the people-to-people organizations in promoting the bilateral relations. He said， relations between countries are in nature the relations between peoples. Bilateral relations would develop smoothly only when people understand and respect each other. In Mongolia， more and more young people were eager to learn Chinese， at the same time， Mongolia had become one of the tourist destinations for Chinese citizens who had more opportunities to have sightseeing in Mongolia. All these were favourable factors in Mongolian-Chinese relations. Chen Haosu expressed his gratitude for Mr. Bagabandi’s comments on the role of people-to-people organizations and assured him that the CPAFFC would continue working hard for enhancing the important relationship between China and Mongolia. Seeing Bagabandi’s grandson present at the banquet， Chen Haosu said to him: “I hope that when you grow up， you will also do a lot for Sino-Mongolian friendship as your grandpa.”

As former president of Mongolia， Bagabandi cared very much about the bilateral political relations as well as the economic and trade cooperation. At the meeting with Madame Uyunqimg， vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China， Bagabandi highly appreciated the selfless assistance China gave Mongolia and the unremitting efforts Chinese leaders had made to develop Mongolian-Chinese relations. Bagabandi considered the joint declaration in 2003 signed by Mongolian and Chinese leaders as a key document guiding the bilateral relations. Uyunqimg and Chen Haosu highly appreciated what Bagabandi had done for Sino-Mongolian relations in the past years and expressed the hope that Bagabandi would use his influence to further deepen the Sino-Mongolian friendship. During his visit， Bagabandi had talks with the managers of China General Technology (Group) Holding Ltd. and Beijing ZHUZONG Group Co.， Ltd. Bagabandi briefed them on the economic policies of Mongolia and encouraged more Chinese enterprises to invest in Mongolia.

In order to let the delegation to have a general idea of the urban construction of Beijing， the CPAFFC invited Bagabandi and his party to visit the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall. The Mongolian delegation liked the modern acoustic and electronic equipment inside the hall and enjoyed the three-dimension movies. Standing in front of the screen of a electronic book， which could “turn pages” at the sign of people’s hands， the grandson waved his little hand again and again and enjoyed the great sceneries of the historic city of Beijing at every “turn of the page”.

Leaving the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall， the delegation’s motorcade ran eastward along the Chang’an Avenue， heading for the Red Sandalwood Museum， a place Madam Bagabandi once visited. Madame Chen Lihua， member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and curator of the Museum， came to the gate with her three granddaughters and accompanied the delegation all through the museum. Bagabandi and his wife showed great admiration at the craftsmanship of a piece of wood carvings. Chen Lihua immediately gave it to them as a gift. In the lounge， Madame Chen selected traditional Chinese dress for every Mongolian friend， expecting that they would appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture more “closely” when they put on the dress. She also presented a souvenir album with Madam Bagabandi’s photo printed in it to the Mongolian delegation. Bagabandi said， every nation’s culture should have something special to win privilege in the world. Madame Chen happily agreed with him. Harmony filled the whole museum.

At the request of Bagabandi， the CPAFFC arranged for the Mongolian delegation to visit the Forbidden City. The delegates listened carefully to the tour guide’s explanation and asked more details they were interested in. At the imperial garden， the tour guide took them to a pine-cypress combining tree. Explaining that this tree symbolized “living to old age in conjugal bliss”， the tour guide suggested that Mr. Bagabandi and madam take a photo together under the tree. While making jokes they pleasantly came under the tree hand in hand for the little grandson to shoot the precious photo.

Besides Beijing， the Mongolian delegation also visited Sanya City of Hainan Province. Yan Zhiyao， executive vice mayor of Sanya， hosted the welcoming banquet in honour of the delegation. Bagabandi had visited Sanya before as president of Mongolia. Visiting the same place again， Bagabandi saw new development both in the city and the surrounding rural areas.

On April 4， Jing Dunquan， vice president of the CPAFFC， came to the Beijing Capital International Airport to see off the Mongolian delegation. Bagabadi said， “We are so grateful to the CPAFFC for arranging our visits， through which we felt the vigour and vitality wherever we went.” Jing recalled his joyful memory of visiting Mongolia and said in earnest， “There is an old saying in China that ‘a close neighbour means more than a distant relative.’ We hope to see the Sino-Mongolian relations becoming closer and closer.” Shaking hands with Jing， Bagabandi completed his successful friendship tour in China.