From March 24 to 28, Fang Guoqiang, vice mayor of Changzhou, headed a trade delegation to Europe to carry out economic and trade activities. The delegation held Changzhou (China) - Essen (Germany) Bilateral Cooperation Forum, attended the Changzhou - Essen News Conference, participated in the matchmaking seminar with businesses in Hereford and visited 12 companies and institutions, so as to further promote the all-round cooperation with Essen.

Essen is a city in the central part of the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Located on the River Ruhr, its population of approximately 567,000 makes it the 9th-largest city in Germany. Currently, Changzhou has already established friendship relation with Essen, and a number of cooperation projects have been carried out in fields of trade, science and technology, education, health, etc.