Maryland-Anhui Agricultural Community Showcase (February, 2023) – With support and participation from the Maryland Department of Agriculture, the Maryland Horse Industry Board, EquestriAsian, the Anhui Foreign Affairs Department, Anhui Friendship Association and the Coordination Council of Chinese-American Associations(CCCAA), the Maryland-Anhui Sister State Committee organized an exhibit at CCCAA’s annual Lantern Festival event in Montgomery County, MD to showcase Maryland and Anhui’s agricultural assets and cooperation, to more than 2,000 Asian American residents of the DC-Maryland-Virginia region.   

The exhibit features include:

• Equestrian/horse industry – Background and information on Maryland’s world-class thoroughbred horse sector, including how Asian-American youth may participate in/attend equestrian events later in 2023, and Maryland’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Anhui Equestrian Association regarding future cooperation.
• Maryland and Anhui Agriculture – Education on both jurisdictions’ famous agricultural assets, and the history of agricultural cooperation between Maryland and Anhui.
• Seafood – Sample Maryland’s very own blue catfish, found in the Chesapeake Bay and a representing a growing export.
• Mushrooms – Sample a delicious dish of mushrooms, prepared “Anhui-style.”  Mushrooms are a major agricultural product of and export from Anhui.

Learn More About the Exhibit

• Higher Education Exchange (2012-2022) – Salisbury University and Anqing Normal University, members of their respective public university systems in Maryland and Anhui have actively exchanged students, faculty, and staff.  More than 100 students from Anqing Normal University have studied for their undergraduate degrees at Salisbury University in specially designed dual degree programs in Economics and Interdisciplinary Studies.  More than a dozen SU students have studied Mandarin language and Chinese history at Anqing Normal and numerous Salisbury alumni have spent a year teaching English at Anqing Normal.  Hundreds more students from Anqing Normal have studied English online and in-person in Maryland.

• Virtual 40th Anniversary Commemoration (2021) – Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Anhui Party Sec. Li Jinbin and a host of economic, trade, and education officials gathered in real time for a memorable celebration of the 40-year sister state relationship between Maryland and Anhui.  

• Mutual Exchange of Personal Protective Gear During COVID (2020 & 2021) – At the outset of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the Maryland-Anhui Sister State Committee in March/April, 2020 raised hundreds of dollars and donations of personal protective gear and sent the products to Anhui.  One year later, in April, 2021, the Anhui Provincial Government, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., the Anhui Equestrian Association, Dangshan County (Anhui) and the U-Play Factory in Anhui returned the favor, sending 100,000 masks to Maryland.

• Tourism Promotion Delegation to Anhui (2018) – Maryland Sister State Committee Chair Steve Drake, Vice Chair Mark Xu, and five Marylanders who won a “lucky draw” during Maryland-Anhui Promotion Week earlier in the year traveled to Anhui Province and attended a tourism promotion conference and visited Huangshan (“Yellow Mountain”) – Anhui’s iconic and most famous tourist site.

• Maryland-Anhui Promotion Week (2018) – The Maryland-Anhui Sister State Committee, working with the Anhui Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organized a visit to Maryland by the largest-ever delegation from China – 125 citizens representing Anhui’s business, education, agriculture, arts/culture and provincial/local governments.  The  three-day event and associated meetings provided a stage and spotlight for Maryland and Anhui to showcase the very best from both jurisdictions.
  

In November 2018, Steven Drake and Mark Xu, Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, of the Maryland-Anhui Sister State Committee; Marylanders Vanessa Marcel, Heather Dellinger, and Jingwen Xu;  and Felicia Pullam, Regional Manager, East Asia and Investment Lead, with the Maryland Department of Commerce participated in the opening ceremony of the Huangshan International Travel Agencies’ Conference

The Maryland-Anhui team, including Mark Xu and Steven Drake, with Director Li at the top of Huangshan Mountain.

Steven Drake, Mark Xu, and Felicia Pullam toured Precedo (November, 2018)

The Anhui Equestrian Association visited Maryland in an educational exchange (August, 2019)