On September 15, 2006, a special plane from England landed at Beijing Capital International Airport.
Brown began his visit on this day.
A few minutes later, the Devonshire, which Barron was on, also landed here. He did not take the same plane as Brown - in fact, on this visit, he was not only accompanied by the British Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Institutional Reform, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Institutional Reform and the CEO of the Trade and Investment Agency, but 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 private plane. Instead, he boarded the Devonshire plane with the management of Kaiser Fund, United Energy Group, British Motor Group and others.
Barron did not attend the welcoming ceremony for Brown at the airport. Instead, he was very low-key. After the Devonshire landed, he got directly into the motorcade and drove to the State Guesthouse under the guidance of a police car.
What was different from before was that the convoy that left from the Devonshire at this time was composed of two Land Rover Defenders in front and behind and two extended Bentley Azzurri in the middle, which were painted with the Devonshire family emblem. After the establishment of the British Automobile Group, Barron had immediately changed his car to a Bentley.
Bonnie had never been to Yanjing before - although Barron had been here more than once, he was always accompanied by Ivanta or the Hearst sisters when he came here before. Bonnie had been to the Magic City with him - so when she was sitting in the car, looking at the scenery of Yanjing through the window, Bonnie could not hide her curiosity.
"Is this place very different from your previous impression?"
Barron asked, smiling at her reaction.
"Yes, dear. I have only seen images of Yanjing in some reports and documentaries before. How should I put it? Maybe it's because of the filter, or because Yanjing has developed so quickly. Now it looks familiar and strange..."
Bonnie's words did express her feelings, just like when the motorcade passed through Tiananmen Square, the iconic scenery here was very familiar even to many people who had never been to China. But being familiar was one thing, seeing it through the "death filter" of media such as the BBC was another feeling altogether.
Moreover, when the media report on Yanjing, they often do not broadcast the footage of its modern buildings.
This is also why it is said that starting from the Yanjing Olympics, more people have seen the modern side of China and have a new understanding of China's development. People who have the financial ability to travel abroad for field visits are a minority no matter where in the world. When media reports are in the hands of the West, it can actually create an information cocoon for ordinary people.
There are good and bad sides in every place. It is not objective to take any one side alone.
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 his family, as well as Prince Andrew, will accompany Brown to India in three days.
However, most of his management will stay in China to follow up on subsequent cooperation matters.
Barron did not participate in much of Brown's visit to Yanjing, and only attended the final ceremony for the signing of a series of economic contracts between the two sides.
But during this period, he and his wife Bonnie were also received individually by Chinese bigwigs.
After all, he has a special status in the visiting delegation. Not only is he the Duke of England, but he also has large investments in China. In this economic cooperation, the contract amount related to him accounts for more than 60% of the total amount. He is a very heavyweight figure.
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 number of more than 2,000 cultural relics, there are many priceless masterpieces.
Some of these artifacts came from the Devonshire family's collection, while others were purchased from various places in Europe by Barron on behalf of Catherine Neville's father - including a small number of antiques purchased from the British Museum and the Louvre.
During the ceremony, Barron delivered a brief speech, in which 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 peoples. As part of this donation, the Devonshire Family Trust will also invest 20 million pounds to build a Cavendish Art Gallery in Yanjing. Most of these cultural relics will be exhibited to the public in this art gallery.
In addition, the Devonshire Family Trust will also cooperate with the Palace Museum, and some of the precious artworks, cultural relics and books collected in Chatsworth House will be exhibited in the Cavendish Art Gallery in the future.
It can be said that during this period, Barron's actions on behalf of the Devonshire family earned them enough favorability in China.
Later, when the economic and trade cooperation agreement was signed between the two sides, the CEOs under Barron reached a series of cooperation with relevant Chinese companies.
This includes the United Energy Group cooperating with CNPC to jointly invest in the construction of a super-large refining and chemical project in Guangxi Province on the coast of China.
This refining and chemical project will include 10 refining units such as 10 million tons of distillation and 2 million tons of hydrocracking, 11 chemical units such as 1 million tons of ethylene, 900,000 tons of polyethylene, 550,000 tons of polypropylene, and public works. The refining and chemical units of this project are centrally controlled and are all world-class in scale. They use the world's most advanced technology. All refined products meet Euro IV standards and most of the chemical products are high-performance products.
The total investment of this refining and chemical project is as high as 30 billion yuan, which will be jointly funded by United Energy Group and PetroChina, with PetroChina holding 51% of its shares and United Energy Group holding 49% of its shares.
The two parties will also cooperate in the oil and gas producing areas of United Energy Group in Indonesia. United Energy Group will hire drilling platforms under CNPC to drill and exploit oil and gas resources. The crude oil produced will be mainly transported to the oil refining base in Guangxi Province for further refining in the future.
This cooperation project is the highlight of the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. It has attracted the attention of senior officials from both sides and represents a cooperation between China and Britain in the field of energy.