December 8, 2023: the home city of Anton Chekhov and The Birth Place of Confucius have been developing friendly relations since 2009, when Taganrog and Jining endorsed the Partnership Agreement. In November 2022 Taganrog City Manager Mikhail Solonitsin and Mayor of Jining Yu Yongsheng signed the new Sister-City Agreement in the remote mode.

Despite the vast geographical distance between the cities, the two sides have successfully implemented a number of joint projects. School students have sent their artworks for several editions of the international art contest "Anton Chekhov and Characters of His Works" and won prizes.


Within the framework of educational cooperation, representatives of Qufu Normal University and Confucius Institute paid visit to Taganrog, where the university's president Jing Zhaoxun delivered a lecture. In September 2017, Taganrog City Executive Dr. phil. Inna Titarenko met Shandong Polytechnic College students.

In September 2016, Confucius Cultural Photo Exhibition was organized by Jining Museum in Taganrog. Russian culture and Chekhov family exhibition was presented in May 2017 within the framework of the strategy "One Belt, One Road," highlighting the cooperation of Taganrog Group of Museums and Jining Museum. Over 12 thousand Chinese school and college students visited the joint Russian-Chinese exhibition in Jining.

November 8, 2018 the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Cooperation between the cities of Jining and Taganrog.

May 13, 2022 Shandong Province, China hosted the 2022 Global Youth Conference. At the invitation of Jining Peoples' Government and Jining Foreign Affairs Office, Dean of the Foreign Languages Dept., lecturers and students of Taganrog Chekhov Teachers College and students of Taganrog Institute of Management and Economy took part in the conference online. In the summer of 2022, Jining joined the international campaign "The World Reads Chekhov,", which brought together participants from 70 countries and received a special prize at "Rudomino Award-2022" contest organized by Rudomino All-Russian State Library For Foreign Literature.


A new Jining's initiative, named "Chinese Culture Corner - Nishan House," is about providing its sister cities with books on the Chinese literature, philosophy and knowledge system. These books are to be placed in libraries and educational institutions in order to organize the thematic culture corners.

The corresponding space has appeared in the foreign department of Taganrog Chekhov Public Library. The department occupies the Tchaikovsky House, which is a historical mansion associated with Ippolit Tchaikovsky, who lived there in 1883-1894, and his brother, worldwide famous composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Members of Taganrog Chekhov Public Library get the chance to check out books on the Chinese language and related topics and, by doing so, connect with the mysterious Confucian culture.