Columbia Mayor Bob McDavid led a ceremony Wednesday at City Hall to welcome delegates from the Laoshan District of Qingdao, in China. The delegation included Zhang Yongbo, Jiang Xinyun, Gao Hongliang, Li Xingshui, Liu Qiang and Qiu Shuoyan.

Laoshan is one of seven districts in the large coastal city of Qingdao, in eastern China. It has been a sister city of Columbia since 2006.

McDavid opened the ceremony by talking about the connections between Columbia and Laoshan.

There are more than 600 MU students from China, McDavid said.

“We treasure their time here and their friendship,” he said.

“Today is a great day to celebrate the friendship between Columbia and China,” junior Tong Gao said. Gao is from Laoshan and helped organize the event and also served as a translator for the delegation. She is a former Maneater staff member.

Hsiao-Mei Wiedmeyer, a member of the Columbia Friends of China, presented each delegation member with a calendar featuring scenes of the MU botanical gardens. McDavid then presented the delegates with a proclamation of friendship and a print of a cardinal, which had been rendered by a local artist in Columbia.

“We have a very good impression of this city,” said Qiu Shuoyan, another translator for the delegation. “It is very beautiful and the people are very nice.”

Shuoyan also helped present McDavid with a drawing of China, which had been created by an artist from Laoshan.

“We will display this prominently in City Hall as a tribute to our sister city,” McDavid said.