Garden unveiled for 40-year friendship between Guangzhou, Los Angeles

GUANGZHOU, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- A garden was unveiled in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, on Monday to honor the friendship between the southern Chinese city and Los Angeles in the United States.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the sister-city relationship between the two cities.

Covering an area of some 1,500 square meters, the Guangzhou-Los Angeles Friendship Garden displays items marking memorable moments in the four decades of exchanges between the two cities, including gifts to Guangzhou from the U.S. city.

Guangzhou's symbolic Kapok trees and the official flower of Los Angeles, Bird of Paradise, were planted in the garden.

Guangzhou Deputy Mayor Wang Huanqing said at the unveiling ceremony that over the past four decades, the two cities have witnessed increasingly close people-to-people exchanges, continuously expanded the fields of exchanges, and deepened cooperation on economics and trade, yielding fruitful results and consolidating their friendship.

Lisa K. Heller, consul-general of the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, said that the unveiling of the garden "represents another powerful connection between the United States and China."