Ｎｅｗ Ｚｅａｌａｎｄ－Ｃｈｉｎａ Ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓｈｉｐ Ｓｏｃｉｅｔｙ Ｄｅｌｅｇａｔｉｏｎ ｉｎ Ｃｈｉｎａ

At the invitation of the CPAFFC， the delegation of New Zealand-China Friendship Society (NZCFS) led by Trevor Linyard， member of the Executive Committee of the NZCFS， visited Beijing， Xi’an， Chengdu and Shanghai from May 27 to June 5. The delegation is composed of those who have been actively engaged in promoting people-to-people friendship between China and New Zealand.

When meeting the delegation， CPAFFC Vice President Li Xiaolin and Liu Jieyi， director general of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs， spoke highly of the bilateral relations that have been growing steadily over the past 35 years and regarded such relationship as a perfect example of practical cooperation between countries.

The two countries have had fruitful cooperation in economy， trade， education and culture. The two sides agree on many issues， closely collaborate through multinational channels and keep regular consultations on providing development aid for South Pacific island countries and handling the humanitarian problems in Darfur， Sudan， etc.

Trevor Linyard， the delegation leader， said that the bilateral relations are very satisfactory; people of the two countries are sincere to each other and there is fruitful cooperation in personnel and economy. He believed that as long as the two sides hold goodwill towards each other and seek mutual benefit， they will be able to overcome challenges and achieve win-win results. All the delegation members were fully confident about the future development of bilateral relations and willing to continue to make contributions to the cause of friendship between the two peoples.

As it is the first trip to China for most delegates， they were deeply impressed by the booming economic and social development wherever they visited. In Shanghai the delegation called on the government of Pudong New Area where they learned a general picture of the area and the preparation for 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The great achievement that Pudong had made in a short span of little more than 10 years was a great surprise to them and won their admiration.

In the view of the delegation， economic cooperation and trade is only one sphere of the friendly relations between New Zealand and China. They hoped that the two countries could strengthen exchanges and interaction in much broader fields such as education， culture and art. The three high school principals in the delegation (including a lady who is the honorary principal of Rewi Alley Chinese School) expressed their wish to have more exchanges of teachers. In their visit to Pinghe Bilingual School of Pudong New Area， the delegation had friendly conversation with the school principal and students. They were impressed by the advanced facilities， regular teaching and learning system and qualified faculties and students.

To some members who had been to China before， they were very glad to notice the considerable improvement of environment of Beijing， Xi’an and other cities. The air was fresher and greenery obviously increased. They once and again expressed appreciation of the efforts that the Chinese government had made in recent years to improve environment.