Sister city since: September 7, 1979

Overview

Located in the eastern part of Kyushu Island, Oita City is the capital of Oita Prefecture with a total area of 502.38 square kilometers and a population of approximately 470,000. The city lies on the alluvial plain formed by Oita and Ono Rivers in the central part of Oita Prefecture. Oita City is famous for its spring cherry blossoms, summer sea, fall foliage and winter plum blossoms. Famous tourist attractions include the crater of Mount Aso, Kumamoto Castle in the Warring States, Beppu Onsen and the Grand Suspension Bridge in Kujumu. Oita City is home to branches of companies such as Nippon Steel, Showa Denko, Canon, and Toshiba. In terms of the high-tech industry, Oita boasts the world’s largest 65nm IC manufacturing plant, and is known for its One Village, One Product agricultural industrialization program.

Relations with Wuhan

Since Wuhan and Oita became sister cities, the two sides have had frequent reciprocal visits via charter flights. With the support of both governments and peoples from all walks of life, a mechanism of high-level visits has been established, and fruitful exchanges have been carried out in such fields as economy and trade, culture, sports, education, agriculture, and youth exchanges.

Every year, Wuhan and Oita send delegations to participate in each other’s events, such as China International Machinery & Electronics Products Fair, China Wuhan Agriculture Expo, and China (Wuhan) International Garden Expo. In terms of cultural exchanges, the two cities have sent groups of artists to participate in the Yumeshige Music Festival and Qintai Music Festival. Oita Art Museum and Wuhan Art Museum formed a partnership to promote art exhibitions in the two cities and exchanges between art professionals. In the field of education, several universities in Oita have established friendship with well-known universities in Hubei such as Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and Jianghan University. The two sides have also organized exchange programs for teachers and students. Each year, Wuhan Foreign Languages School sends students studying Japanese to Oita High School for a three-month study program, and the students are highly praised for their excellent performance. In agriculture, Wuhan has sent eight groups of outstanding technicians to Oita to learn advanced agricultural technology since the 1980s, and still sends people to work in Oita enterprises every year.

When Wuhan and Oita celebrated the 27th anniversary of their sister city relations in 2006, Oita set up its representative office in Wuhan to further promote trade cooperation between enterprises. As a result, Aeon Group was introduced into Wuhan. Zhongbai Group and Wushang Group signed a number of trade cooperation agreements with Oita enterprises. Oita products can now be found in Wuhan’s supermarkets. Oita has held Oita Products Exhibition and Oita Food Exhibition in Wuhan for many times, and Wuhan delegations also went to Oita for events such as Wuhan Snack Week.

Since the establishment of the sister city relations, the two cities have arranged training programs for each other’s civil servants. In recent years, the Oita City Government has sent its staff to Wuhan University every year to study Chinese. When they finish their study, they will work in Wuhan Foreign Affairs Office and Oita Office in Wuhan to know more about the city and prepare themselves for further promoting the friendship between the two cities.

With fruitful exchanges, the two cities represent a fine example of sister cities. At the 2018 China International Friendship Cities Conference, Wuhan received the Special Contribution Award.