The delegation of Vienna, led by mayor Bernhard Mahler, arrived at Ningbo. Song Wei, Minister of Propaganda of Ningbo, met the delegation in Sheraton Hotel last night.
Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and the smallest of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations such as the United Nations and OPEC. Art and culture have a long tradition in Vienna and has been noted for land of music.
Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the Hofburg and Schönbrunn (also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the Burgtheater, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lipizzaner horses at the spanische Hofreitschule and the Vienna Boys' Choir, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling. There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are Albertina, Belvedere, Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier, KunstHausWien, BA-CA Kunstforum, the twin Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum, and the Technisches Museum Wien, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year. There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven's various residences and grave at Central Cemetery which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous people. Vienna is also a city for international conferences. 147 conferences were held in 2006 here. Vienna has become a more welcome city for conference tan Singapore and Paris.
In 2002, Ningbo established friendly relationship with Vienna and started its exchange and cooperation in terms of trade, culture and education. The delegation is expected to make a survey on the social and economic development in recent years and seek the possibility of further exchange and cooperation.