I. Introduction to Rinteln

Rinteln City, located on the Weser River in Schaumburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, has a history of more than 700 years. It consists of a core city and 18 districts, with an area of 109 square kilometers and a total population of about 26,000. Surrounded by mountains, Rinteln City is a part of Schaumburg-Hameln Nature Park on the Weser River. Since 1992, Rinteln City has established friendship cities relations with Kendal, England, and Slawno, Poland. There are many medium-sized enterprises in Rinteln City, among which the cold-draw technology of WTI, the protective cover of electronic equipment manufactured by RoLeC and the flexible packaging solution of Armco are all at the world leading level.

II. Contact between Tongnan District and Rinteln

The nongovernmental contact between Tongnan District and Rinteln City began in 2004. Dr. Gilstein, the Vice Chairman of the Municipal Government Council, visited Tongnan several times because his wife was a native of Tongnan, and established a profound friendship with the people of Tongnan. Since 2014, Dr. Gilstein and a delegation of teachers and students from GE Arts and Sciences Middle School in Rinteln City have visited Tongnan District for exchanges every year.

In March 2018, Mr. Thomas Primmer, Mayor of Rinteln, entrusted 13 teachers and students of GE Arts and Sciences Middle School as official representatives to pay a friendly visit to Tongnan District under the leading of Dr. Gilstein. In April 2019, Dr. Gilstein led 12 teachers and students of GE Arts and Sciences Middle School to visit Tongnan again. On April 9, both sides signed the Memorandum on Establishing Friendly Cooperation Relations, and GE Arts and Sciences Middle School became a sister school with Tongnan No.1 Middle School. In the second half of 2019, a delegation from Tongnan District paid a friendly visit to Rinteln City, and conducted in-depth exchanges on formally establishing friendly district-city relations and promoting bilateral cooperation in economy, trade, agriculture, education and culture.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, Mayor of Rinteln sent a letter to District Head of Tongnan District to express condolences, and District Head of Tongnan District sent a letter of thanks, saying that in view of the increasingly serious international epidemic, both sides would support and help each other as friendship cities. The delegation of Mayor of Rinteln was scheduled to visit Tongnan in March 2020, but due to the epidemic situation, the visit has been postponed. The German side expressed understanding and support for the epidemic prevention and control work, indicating that they will visit Tongnan after the epidemic is over to further deepen exchanges and cooperation. With the increasingly serious epidemic situation abroad, Tongnan District Government actively donated 30,000 masks to Rinteln City, and assisted in solving the demand for KN95 masks and other materials, effectively alleviating the shortage of local epidemic prevention materials.