The_CEO_Magazine_ANZ_-_December_2016

EVENT

T

he sun is setting on another sticky summer’s

day in China’s capital city, Beijing. As the

sky darkens, the lights illuminating the

National Olympic Sports Center Stadium

seem to get a little brighter. There’s a buzz

of anticipation in the air and no one really seems to

mind the sweltering heat. It doesn’t last anyway; before

the siren blasts to signal the start of the game, the

players on the field and supporters in the grandstands

are hit by a gust of cyclonic wind, promptly followed by

a downpour of torrential rain.

For the first-time, New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix

Football Club is versing China’s Beijing BG Football

Club in a new annual event dubbed the Capital Cup.

This marks a decade-long relationship between the two

sister cities and both the former Wellington Mayor,

Celia Wade-Brown, and the Beijing Vice-Mayor, Zhang

Jiandong, are present for the evening’s match. As a

symbolic show of rapport they join the players on the

manicured grass and kick the ball to one another, their

smiles not at all dampened by the volatile weather.

“The Capital Cup is very meaning ful,” Zhang Jiandong

tells The CEO Magazine at the end of the match, won

by Wellington 2–1. “This year marks the ten-year

anniversary of the sister city relationship. The teams

played a very good game despite catastrophic rain,

showing the great friendship between the two cities. In

the future, we will further strengthen the relationship

in fields such as the economy, culture and sport.”

Celia Wade-Brown echoes his thoughts with her take

on the relationship between the two sister cities. “I

have to say, it’s great that the Phoenix won, but that’s

not what this is all about. The whole event has been

incredibly welcoming, there have been comments

wishing us a happy anniversary for the Beijing–

Wellington relationship; it is wonderful,” she says.

“The game was broadcast on Beijing sports TV and

also on the whole China TV network. Everybody

knows where Beijing is, everybody knows where

London is, most people know where Sydney is, but

as Wellington we have to shout quite loudly to be

Two vastly diverse cities find common

ground on the sporting field at the inaugural

Capital Cup, a friendly football game

between Wellington and Beijing.

F IMAGES^ BEIJING MAYOR’S OFFICE^ WORDS^ SKYE HOKL AS

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