Polish plane tree in Yangcheng

20.08.2010

North-west from Szanghai, in the distance of 4 hours by coach from the Word Exhibition and almost at the foot of one of the most beautiful Chinese mountains, Huang Shan, a Polish accent appeared yesterday – a tree of friendship planted by Bogdan Marczewski, Deputy Commissioner General of the Polish Section at Expo 2010.

Commissioner Marczewski was one of the representatives of countries taking part in Expo 2010 who participated in the Days of Friendship, organized on August 18th and 19th by the management of the World Exhibition. The Days were celebrated in a 3-million city of Yangcheng in the Jingsu province. The agglomeration authorities take care of the environment and ecology, trying to create the best living conditions for their inhabitants. This attitude goes along with the motto of the Shanghai Expo - “Better City, Better Life”.

In Poland there is a saying that one has to eat a barrel of salt to make friends with someone. In the light of the saying, selection of the city of Yangcheng (freely translated as The City of Salt), which was famous for the extraction of this mineral back in 119 BC, acquires an additional meaning. This tradition has been continued up until today, though on a smaller scale. Although this salt-related connection so obvious for a Pole was probably a coincidence, the fact that the Days were celebrated in the Yandu Park, located in the city centre, has not. This beautiful Chinese garden is very often visited not only by the citizens of Yangcheng, by numerous tourists and was a perfect place for this kind of event.

It was in this scenery that general commissioners of national pavilions or their deputies planted the trees of friendship, often giving each other a helping hand. But mistaken would be the one who believed that they were planting small trees. Quite the opposite, the commissioners planted a several-meter tall, heavily enrooted planes – all in the temperature reaching 40 degrees.

Now every tree has a tablet, saying on what occasion and by representative of which country it was planted. Participants of the event were awarded special certificates confirming this fact.

Although the tree- planting was the main event of the Days of Friendship, it was not the only one. Representatives of national pavilions met with municipal administration of Yangcheng (with the Mayor Li Qiang ), made themselves familiar with the achievements of the city: developed car industry, machine, economic and chemical industry, watched a multimedia presentation on the economic, industrial and tourism potential of the agglomeration.

At the end of the day participants took part in an evening artistic programme which included pieces of traditional Chinese opera, a concert of Chinese music and acrobatic performances.

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