Weihai donates 10,000 medical masks to the City of Lancaster

Project narrative

In April 2020, the People's Government of Weihai Municipality donated 10,000 medical masks to the Lancaster City Council. Weihai (Shandong) is the city hosting the Lancaster University College-Beijing Jiaotong University—a joint institute formed by the Lancaster University College and Beijing Jiaotong University in 2016. Each box of masks carried a quote by William Shakespeare: “He that is thy friend indeed, he will help those in the need.” The boxes were accompanied by a letter from Zhang Haibo, Head of CPC Weihai Municipal Committee and Yan Jianbo, the Mayor of Weihai Municipal Government. They wrote, “people in Lancaster are going through a critical time similar to the situation we suffered a couple of months ago. On behalf of the Weihai government and all the people here, we would like to convey our sincere sympathy to you and all citizens in Lancaster. We hope and wish you will overcome the difficulties it has presented at an early date.” The letter added there had been no new cases since March 12, 2020, in Weihai and businesses and people’s lives were back to normal. In addition, the letter also stated that “although our task for future virus prevention and control are still tough, we would like to spare some of our face masks to assist Lancaster in battling against this virus.” The Director of the Lancaster University’s Confucius Institute, Professor Jinghan Zeng, was the Wehai city government’s point of contact in the coordination of this donation. Glenn Willis, franchise owner of Inxpress Blackpool, the United Kingdom importer, assisted with this donation without cost for the Lancaster City Council.