Chapter 491 Cavendish Art Gallery

On September 15, 2006, a special plane from England landed at the Capital International Airport.

Brown began his visit on this day.

A few minutes after this, the Devonshire on which Barron was riding also landed here. He was not on the same plane as Brown. In fact, this visit was not only accompanied by British business, enterprises and The Minister of Institutional Reform, the Minister of State for Business, Enterprise and Institutional Reform, and the CEO of the Trade and Investment Agency. At the same time, he also brought more than 30 representatives of British entrepreneurs.

Well, there was also Prince Andrew who came on behalf of the royal family. However, this member of the royal family did not squeeze into Brown's special plane. Instead, he went with management including Caesars Fund, United Energy Group, British Automotive Group, etc. Flying aboard the Devonshire.

Barron did not attend the welcoming ceremony for Brown at the airport. Instead, he kept a very low profile. After the Devonshire landed, he got directly into the motorcade and drove to the State Guesthouse under the guidance of a police car.

What is different from before is that the convoy leaving Devonshire at this time already consists of two Land Rover Defenders, one in front and one behind, plus two extended Bentley Elegances spray-painted with the Devonshire family crest. After the establishment of the British Automobile Group, Barron immediately changed his car to a Bentley.

Bonnie has never been to Yanjing before - although Barron has been here more than once, when he came here before, he was always accompanied by Ivanta or the Hearst sisters, but Bonnie I had been to the Magic City with him - so sitting in the car, looking at the scenery of Yanjing through the car window, Bonnie couldn't hide the curiosity in her eyes.

"Is this place very different from your previous impression?"

There are good and bad sides everywhere, and it is not objective enough to single out any one side.

Seeing her reaction, Barron asked with a smile.

Bonnie's words also expressed her feelings, just like when the motorcade passed through Tiananmen Square, the iconic scenery here is familiar to many people who have never been to China, but familiarity is familiar. It's one thing to see it in the "death filter" of the BBC and other media, but it's another thing to see it with your own eyes.

And often when the media reports on Yanjing, they will not broadcast the footage of the modern buildings.

This is why it is said that starting from the Yanjing Olympics, more people have seen the modern side of China and re-understood China's development - people who have the financial ability to go abroad for on-site visits, no matter where they are in the world, are Being in the minority, when media reports are in the hands of the West, they can actually create an information cocoon for ordinary people.

"Yes, dear, I have only seen scenes of Yanjing in some reports and documentaries before. How should I put it? It may be because of the filters or the rapid development of Yanjing. Now it looks familiar and familiar. Strange feeling..."

It can be said that Brown's schedule this time is quite tight. He will visit here for three days, stay in Yanjing for two days, and go to Shanghai on the last day. After that, he will leave China and go to his next destination, India. .

According to the itinerary, Barron and the others, as well as Prince Andrew, will also accompany Brown to India three days later.

It's just that most of his management will stay in China to follow up on follow-up cooperation matters.

Barron did not participate in much of Brown's trip to Yanjing, and would only attend the final ceremony where the two parties signed a series of economic contracts.

But during this period, he and his wife Bonnie were also individually received by Chinese bosses.

After all, he has a special status among the delegation visiting this time. Not only is he a Duke of England, but he also has a large investment in China. In this economic cooperation, the contract amount related to him accounts for 60% of the total amount. % or above, he is a very heavyweight.

Among them, Barron and Bonnie also attended a ceremony. On behalf of the Devonshire Family Trust, he will donate a batch of cultural relics to the Palace Museum free of charge. Among the total of more than 2,000 cultural relics, there are some priceless masterpieces. .

Some of these cultural relics come from the collection of the Devonshire family, and some of them were purchased from various places in Europe by Barron on behalf of Catherine Neville's father - some were even purchased from the British Museum and the Louvre. A small collection of antique artifacts.

During this ceremony, Barron gave a brief speech. He said that this was not a one-time action. In the future, the Devonshire Family Trust will continue to be committed to building friendship between the two countries as a foundation for this donation event. In part, the Devonshire Family Trust will also invest 20 million pounds to build a Cavendish Art Museum in Yanjing, where most of these cultural relics will be displayed to the public.

In addition, the Devonshire Family Trust will also cooperate with the Palace Museum. In the future, some precious artworks, cultural relics and books collected at Chatsworth Manor will be exhibited at the Cavendish Art Gallery.

It can be said that during this period, Barron's behavior on behalf of the Devonshire family gained them a lot of favorability in China.

Later, when the economic and trade cooperation agreement between the two parties was signed, the CEOs under Barron reached a series of cooperation with relevant Chinese companies.

Including United Energy Group, it will cooperate with PetroChina to jointly invest in the construction of a very large refining and chemical project in Guizhou Province on the coast of China.

This refining and chemical project will include 10 sets of refining units including 10 million tons of distillation and 2 million tons of hydrocracking, 11 sets of chemical plants including 1 million tons of ethylene, 900,000 tons of polyethylene, and 550,000 tons of polypropylene, as well as public works. The engineering refining and chemical units are all under centralized control and are of world-class scale, adopting the world's most advanced technology. All the refining products meet Euro IV standards, and most of the chemical products are high-performance products.

The total investment in this refining and chemical project is up to 30 billion Chinese dollars, which will be jointly funded by United Energy Group and PetroChina. PetroChina holds 51% of its shares and United Energy Group holds 49% of its shares.

In addition, the two parties will also cooperate in the oil and gas production areas of United Energy Group in Indonesia. United Energy Group will hire drilling platforms affiliated to PetroChina to drill and exploit oil and gas resources. The crude oil produced will be mainly shipped to the petroleum refinery in Guangxi Province in the future. chemical base for further refining.

In this way, this cooperation project is the highlight of the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. It has attracted the attention of the top leaders of both sides and represents a cooperation between China and England in terms of energy.