At the invitation of the Organizing Committee of the 19th World Winter Cities Association for Mayors and the Rovaniemi Municipal Government of Finland, Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of Changchun Municipal People's Government Xue Chunzhi led a delegation consisting of representatives from the organ's American and Oceania Affairs Division and the European and African Affairs Division participated in the online video conference of the 19th World Winter Cities Association for Mayors on behalf of Changchun on November 5, November 15 and November 16.

Revolving around the theme of Aging Society in Winter Cities and Cold Climate this year, regional representatives and industry experts from Changchun, Daqing, Harbin, Jiamusi, Jilin, Qiqihar and Shenyang of China, Ulaanbaatar of Mongolia, Hwacheon of the Republic of Korea, Norilsk of Russia, Rovaniemi of Finland, Sapporo of Japan, and Edmonton of Canada, actively shared insights on topics related to tourism development, and challenges of urban infrastructure construction and aging society in the northern cities.

In order to better advance development in the post-pandemic era, the Winter Cities Association for Mayors will build a platform and promote cooperation and exchanges among member cities. The conference voted to pass The Rovaniemi Declaration and Resolution of The 19th World Winter Cities Associations for Mayors. Participating delegates reached consensus regarding subjects such as restoration of future on-site exchanges, mitigation of climate change, improvement of urban planning, consideration of the needs of the aging society, etc., and agreed to make good use of the winter city mayors regular contact platform and work project team after the meeting, so as to fully promote the normalization of cross-border and cross-regional cooperation.

At the meeting Director Xue Chunzhi extended his sincere greetings to the Organizing Committee and the participating cities on behalf of Changchun, adding that the pandemic may separate us physically, but can't separate our friendship. He expressed the hope that all cities can meet on-site and discuss prospects in the near future.

The World Winter Cities Association for Mayors was founded in 1981 by Sapporo, Japan, and is comprised of 22 cities from nine countries as of 2021. This is the first time that the Winter Cities Association for Mayors has resumed online meeting since the global coronavirus outbreak. According to the work plan of the Conference, the 2022 World Winter Cities Association for Mayors will be hosted by the Russian city of Norilsk.