Cairns- AUSTRALIA

Cairns and Oyama signed a formal Sister City agreement on Monday, May 15, 2006.
Cairns is located on the north east coast of Australia in the state of Queensland. Cairns is situated between the world famous Great Barrier Reef and the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics Rainforest, and as such has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Australia.

Cairns and Oyama began friendships talks in 2002, when the Mayors of both Cairns and Oyama signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Since then, Oyama and Cairns have continued to strengthen their relationship and each year the two cities participate in a multitude of student exchanges programs.
The two cities are now starting to incorporate many other aspects into the friendship, including cultural affairs, arts, council exchange, business and tourism.

During Oyama’s first official delegation visit to Cairns, a group of local Oyama engineers and town planners accompanied the delegation to gain valuable insight into the local architectural designs of Cairns. With this information, they then returned to Oyama and designed the new Oyama International House Building (Omoigawa Michi no Eki), incorporating the typical Cairns architectural style into the building designs.
With a population of 130,000 people, Cairns and Oyama share many similarities while at the same time are distinctly unique. The sister city relationship between Cairns and Oyama will be for a 10-year term, to be reviewed after that time.


Benxi- CHINA

Benxi is a large industrial city located in Liaoning province in north east China. Benxi has a population of 1.571 million people and more than 20 ethnic groups exist together. The main industries are steel and coal, though 80% of the city’s land is occupied by large forest mountains.

Mutual exchanges began between Oyama and Benxi in 1985, and in October 1994 the two cities signed a friendship agreement during the 40th anniversary ceremony of Oyama city. The friendship between Benxi and Oyama continued to grow for another 10 years, upon the two cities signing a Sister City agreement in 2004.

Benxi and Oyama continue to share cultural exchanges and communication, with city delegations visiting both cities on a regular basis.



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