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Invited by the CPAFFC， the delegation of the Palestinian city Ramallah led by its mayor Janette Nicholas Michael paid a goodwill visit to China from June 11 to 17. CPAFFC President Chen Haosu and Vice President Feng Zuoku met with the delegation. Zuo Huanchen， vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference， met with Mayor Janette Michael and her party.

The City of Ramallah covers an area of 19，000 dunums (one dunum is about 1，000 square metres) with a population of 35，000 in the city proper. The population of the Ramallah area， which includes the surrounding villages， reaches 220，000. The city is the seat of many departments of the Palestinian National Authority. In the city there are the biggest hospital in West Bank and one of the best universities in Palestine with nearly 52，000 students. Ramallah has forged sister-city ties with cities in Italy， France， Norway， Spain and other countries. Ms. Janette Michael was elected mayor of the city as an independent candidate in 2005.

It was the first visit to China for all the members of the delegation. They marveled at the great achievement China had made in its modernization drive. One of the members who had once lived in the Soviet Union said， before he came to China he had thought that things in the socialist China would be more or less the same as those in the Soviet Union where consumer goods were in extreme short supply. What he has seen in China is an unexpected scene of abundance and people living in comfort and affluence. Take for example the City of Yiwu， Zhejiang Province. It has turned from a poor county where people did not have enough to eat into the world’s largest small commodities wholesale centre and a modern and prosperous city in a short time of some 20 years. This fully demonstrates that China’s reform and opening-up is a correct road consistent with the country’s actual conditions.

Fu Zhimin， vice mayor of Yiwu， exchanged views on the establishment of friendship-city relations with the delegation. The two sides agreed to establish links and carry out exchanges first， and discuss the twinning of friendship cities when conditions are ripe.