On May 22, 2007, invited by China Commerce Department, President Charlie Zhang flew to Billings, Montana as a member of Group for Promotion of Sino-U.S. Trade and Investment.
Montana is a Latin, which means “Mountainous region”. She became the 41st state of U.S. on November 8, 1889 and Bitterroot is her state flower. The fourth largest state in U.S. has 381,085 square kilometers in area. However, the population takes only the 43rd place with 761,000 residents. In Montana, there are two great spectacular physical reliefs: northern tip of Rocky Mountains and the Prairie. The grassland covers Montana’s three fifth lands. Except for some isolated mountains and steam valleys, the grassland stretched away into the Rocky Mountains in the west and the climate is capricious. The State is known for her fresh air and clean running water so that is extolled as the cleanest state in the U.S. The main economic resources and dominated industries are agricultures, livestock husbandry and mining. The production of barley is on the second position and wheat is on the third position of the U.S. Herdsmen raise cattle and sheep. The State is rich in gold, silver, copper, oil and gas. In addition, the abundant tourism resources are the State’s another principal character. The Glacier National Park and part of Yellow Stone National Park are in this State.
On the seminar of the promotion for the Sino-U.S. Trade and Investment, Max Baucus, originally from Montana and the Chairman of Finance Department of the Senate, made a speech by TV. Xu Jin, the Chief of U.S. Sub-department of China Commerce Department, read out the letter from Xiuhong Ma, the Vice Minister of the Commerce Department. The entrepreneurs from both sides had deep talks with each other and reached many cooperative agreements. The seminar has yielded a rich harvest.