British Prime Minister Theresa May made a stop-off in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, before heading to Beijing on the first day of her visit to China.

May arrived in Wuhan on Wednesday morning on a chartered flight and was greeted by China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, UK’s ambassador to China ,Barbara Woodward, as well as the deputy provincial governor of Hubei. 

Besides Beijing and Shanghai, Wuhan is a major education hub in China, with its large number of universities and students. During the few hours of her stopover, May visited Wuhan University, where she joined a group of British and Chinese students at a festival celebrating the Spirit of Youth.

In a brief speech, May spoke about people-to-people links being the foundation of a golden era of UK-China relations and expressed her hope that educational collaboration between the two countries would extend beyond universities and enter the early years of education. During the speech May also announced that China and the UK would be extending the Shanghai math teacher exchange, which was launched in 2015 and considered to be a good example of what May calls “people-to-people links.”

The Prime Minister also had a stop on the banks of the Yangtze River to learn how local authorities are preserving the waterway’s natural condition.

In a separate itinerary from the Prime Minister, UK’s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox led a UK business delegation to meet with municipal officials and business leaders from Wuhan. The two sides signed a total of 9 projects contract, which included an agreement between Wuhan and Swansea on the establishment of sister city relationship and another between Wuhan and Manchester on the exchange and cooperation in football. 

Cover Photo: Theresa May (right two) and her husband Philip May (right one), with UK’s ambassador to China Barbara Woodward (left one) and China’s ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming (left two)/CCTV Photo