A MARK of friendship saw Stratford District Council chairman Chris kettle travel to China to collect an award.
The councillor attended the China International Friendship Cities Conference to receive The Friendship City Award for Exchanges and Cooperation on behalf of the council.
The award and trip – funded by the Chinese government – aimed to strengthen the relationship between Stratford and Fuzhou City in Jiangxi Province.
Both are already celebrating existing links through iconic literary figures Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare, who both died in 1616.
Shakespeare will be honoured, alongside Xianzu and Don Quixote author Cervantes, at a heritage park being built by Fuzhou, in which a replica of Stratford town is being created.
Coun Kettle said: “It was a great privilege to be invited by the joint hosts of the conference, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the China International Friendship Cities Association and Wuhan Municipal People’s Government to collect this award and to speak in front of such an international audience about our successful relationship with Fuzhou.
“Stratford-on-Avon district looks forward to the future working with our colleagues in both Fuzhou and Jiangxi Province on our shared cultural and other links and looking towards such opportunities that this relationship might bring forward.”
