Newman Huo  

 
SHENZHEN Mayor Xu Zongheng signed a memorandum with Norm McFarlane, mayor of Saint John, New Brunswick, , to promote cooperation and exchanges between the two cites in Wuzhou Guest House on Wednesday, the first day of the Seventh China Hi-Tech Fair.  

 
According to the memorandum, both sides will enhance exchanges between the two municipal governments by sending delegations to visit each other, push forward cooperation in business, trade, science and technology, port construction and management as well as exchanges in fields of education, sports, and tourism in the future.  

 
Before the signing ceremony, Xu briefed McFarlane and his delegation about the dramatic social and economic development of the city from a small border town into a modern and international city during the past 25 years.
 

Xu said Shenzhen attached great importance to cooperation and exchanges with its sister cities around the globe and wished to learn and borrow more successful experiences from Saint John in economy and management.  

 
McFarlane said he discovered many similarities and differences between Shenzhen and Saint John during his stay here.  

 
McFarlane said the major difference was that Saint John had a population of 130,000 people while Shenzhen had more than 10 million people.  

 
As for similarities between the two cities, McFarlane said Saint John , as a high-tech center, had a big industry sector of information technology.  

 
"We have such companies such as IBM and Xerox and some other major Fortune 500 companies in our city," he said.

McFarlane said the other similarity was that both cities were port cities as Saint John was the third-largest seaport in . 

Besides, as the oldest incorporated city in , Saint John had a rich cultural heritage and many culture facilities including more than 40 galleries and a beautifully restored theater, McFarland added.  

 
" Saint John has been recognized this year as the third-best city in for doing business and living in," McFarland said. 

 
McFarland, 70, was elected mayor last year. This has been the first time for him to visit Shenzhen. 

 
"I’ve really enjoyed coming to Shenzhen, and it’s a way more than I expected and has changed my mind completely about ," he said.  

 
"I didn’t expect Shenzhen to be so modern as it is, and I’m amazed by what I saw here," he said. 

 
Located at the mouth of the Saint John River on the eastern coast, Saint John is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick and the oldest city in Canada.  

 
History records that the French explorers Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain, arrived at the mouth of what is now the St. John River on June 24, 1604, feast day of St. John the Baptist and named the river in the Saint’s honor. 

 
A well-known phenomenon is the " Reversing Falls " at the river’s mouth, where strong tidal fluctuations of nine meters reverse the river’s flow for several kilometers upstream twice daily.  

 
Saint John became the province’s leading industrial center during the 19th century, fostering a shipbuilding trade that lasted until 2002, in addition to being a major forestry and manufacturing center.  

 
Today, Saint John remains the industrial powerhouse of New Brunswick and the Maritimes and currently hosts the greatest concentration of industry on the Atlantic coast north of New York City .