"La Cina è vicina, Suzhou ancora di più! Forza Venezia!" The sentence in Italian was printed on 50 chests that contain 20,000 medical masks in total. As the humanitarian assistance provided by Suzhou Municipal People's Government and also the first batch of going-abroad supplies within Jiangsu Province, the masks took an additional flight offered by China Eastern Airlines from Shanghai to Milan at 11:25 this morning.
Venice remains the first city that establishes friendship with Suzhou around the world.2020 marks the 40th year since the two cities joined hand. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, Suzhou successively received letters from Laura Fincato - the honorary citizen of Suzhou, Massimiliano De Martin - Deputy Mayor of Venice and Tiziana Lippiello - the Deputy President of Cafoscari University of Venice. In the letters, they expressed solicitude for Suzhou citizens and believed the epidemic would end soon so that a series of events in celebration of friendship can be held smoothly.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy, Suzhou was proactive in collecting information on epidemic situation of Venice and immediately sent videos that promote knowledge of epidemic prevention and control. "Suzhou will fight against the virus together with Venice", Li Yaping, Deputy Party Secretary of the CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee and Mayor of Suzhou, wrote in his letter to Brugnaro, Mayor of Venice.
Knowing that the MFA is coordinating flights to transport the medical supplies sent to Italian friendship cities by Jiangsu Province, Foreign Affairs Office of Suzhou Municipal Government jointly works with Suzhou Bureau of Commerce and Sinotrans to transport the 50 chests of medical supplies to the warehouse of China Eastern Airlines. It took only 1 day to prepare all kinds of certifications. As the first batch of medical supplies sent to Italy by Jiangsu Province, the 20,000 medical masks left for Italy together with other supplies that respectively aiming to assist Veneto and Tuscany. "In spite of the mountains and seas between Suzhou and Venice, the people of the two cities will always stand together and fight together. We believe that people of Venice will feel inspired on seeing Italian words, so the Italian movie 'La Cina è vicina' was used as the tag and printed on the chests", said officers of Foreign Affairs Office of Suzhou Municipal Government.
In addition, another 10 chests of Chinese tea-bag beverage sent by Suzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine will leave for Italy within the next few days.
(Source:iSuzhou)
