During the final month of 2013, the Chapala municipal government received visiting delegations from two Asian nations with the aim of building ties of friendship in matters of mutual concern.
On December 2, Chapala Mayor Joaquin Huerta welcomed visitors hailing from China’s Jiangxi Province in representation of Lake Poyang. The thrust of the encounter was to develop understanding and cooperation between stakeholders from the largest fresh water lakes of Mexico and China.
Poyang-hu is situated approximately 50 kilometers north of Nanchang and linked to the Yangtse River via a kilometer-long channel. The lake basin is one of China’s most important rice-producing regions.
The Poyang flood plain is subject to massive changes in water level. In the dry season the lake’s surface shrinks to less than 1,000 square kilometers, exposing a complex of wetlands and mudflats that attracts up to half a million waterfowl, among about 95 percent of the world’s population of Siberian Crane. During the late summer rainy season, its dimensions increase to as much as 4,400 km2.A party group of public officials and business people from Jinju, South Korea accompanied by Jalisco Tourism Minister Enrique Ramos Ruiz blew into town on December 4 to meet with the mayor and his cultural promotion staff.
The visit culminated with the signing of a letter of intention to formalize a sister-city relationship between the two cities.
A central goal of the cross-cultural bond was to lay the groundwork for Chapala to host the Floating Lantern Festival, provisionally planned for November of next year.