In the Missouri Botanical Garden based in St. Louis stands a classic Chinese style “Nanjing Garden”, designed and built by Nanjing in 1994 to commemorate the 15th anniversary between Nanjing and St. Louis.

Mr. Shi Hang, Secretary of St. Louis-Nanjing Sister Cities Commission and Director of Chinese Education and Culture Center at St. Louis, has been living in St. Louis for 14 years. As a frequent visitor of Missouri Botanical Garden, he has witnessed quite a few changes over the years. “In the past many visitors would simply take a look at the outside of the “Nanjing Garden” and then leave, but now people are willing to go inside and learn more about Nanjing.”

The past 40-plus years have witnessed the deepening friendship between the two cities. Since 1990 St. Louis has been celebrating “Chinese Culture Days” by staging various cultural exhibitions such as bridal sedan chairs used for wedding ceremony, qipao and Chinese intangible cultural heritage items. According to Mr. Shi Hang, some local people are thinking about visiting Nanjing when the covid-19 ends. 

In 2019 St. Louis sculptor Harry Weber made two statues to honor the 40th anniversary of the two cities. St. Louis gifted one of them to Nanjing, a bronze statue modeled on two-time Gold Glove-winner Adam Wainwright of St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, pitching towards the direction of St. Louis. The other stays in St. Louis, which is of a Nanjing batter wearing the number 40 on the back of his jersey and symbolically awaiting Adam Wainwright’s pitch. Across the world the two players are playing together, representing the connection between the two cities.

During the Spring Festival of 2021, Nanjing Little Red Flower Art Troupe and Nanjing No. 5 Junior High School’ performance videos were played on the St. Louis online Spring Festival Gala, bringing Chinese traditional culture to St. Louisans. During the same time next year, Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe’s performance video once again became the highlight of St. Louis Spring Festival Gala. “The performances are highly appreciated and widely praised by the local people. Many local media have reported on the performances and the friendship between the two cities,” said Mr. Shi Hang.

Both the two cities lie on the banks of a vast river. As Mr. Shi Hang said, the two cities’ friendship runs as long as the Yangtze River and the Mississippi River.

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China and the United States of America established diplomatic relations on January 1st, 1979. On November 2nd that year, with the approval of Deng Xiaoping and with the help of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the two cities tied knots and became the first pair of sister cities between the two countries.

Every five and ten years of the relationship, the two cities would send out a large delegation to visit each other. Over the past 40-plus years, economic and trade collaboration between the two cities has also extended to educational, cultural and medical exchanges as exemplified by the cooperation between Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo and St. Louis Zoo, Nanjing No. 5 Junior High School and Chaminade Middle School of St. Louis, Jinling Library and St. Louis County Library.