On February 23rd, the awards ceremony and exchange forum of the 16th "Great Wall Friendship Award" were held in Shougang Park. The "Great Wall Friendship Award" is the only award and highest honor awarded by Beijing to foreigners in the city. Before the exchange forum, more than 30 people including winners of the "Great Wall Friendship Award" and guests participating in the event visited Shougang Park to experience the unique charm of the "new landmark of urban revival". They successively praised the gorgeous transformation of Shougang Park.

Shougang Park was born because of the Summer Olympics and prospered because of the Winter Olympics. Century-old Shougang seized the opportunity of the Olympic Games to achieve a gorgeous transformation, and the new era has given it a new mission. Focusing on "cultural revival, ecological revival, industrial revival, and vitality revival", it planned post-Winter Olympics chapters, created a future-oriented, young people-oriented, internationalized and dynamic space and favored development place, and strived to become the Shougang Highland of the International Center for Science & Technology Innovation in Beijing and Shougang Fulcrum of Beijing as an international consumption center city, thereby creating a new landmark of urban revival themed "Together for a Shared Future".

In Shougang Park in late winter and early spring, the sun was warm and spring was arriving. The winners of the "Great Wall Friendship Award" took a diagonal elevator to the Athletes' Departure Area at Big Air Shougang to experience the unique perspective of athletes in competition and learn about the transformation of the Shougang Winter Olympics Area and the post-competition utilization of Big Air Shougang.

"It is a very nice place here!" said Francesco Faiola (from Italy), Leader of the Stem Cell Toxicology Research Group, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as he climbed high and gazed far, full of praise.

Big Air Shougang spreads Winter Olympics culture and the spirit of the Beijing Winter Olympics with its unique charm, and actively explores and promotes the sustainable use of Olympic heritage. After the Winter Olympics, it hosted the FIS Snowboard and Freeski Big Air World Cup, Love Charity Running, "Yi Fund" Establishment Ceremony, Cultural Evening of the Beijing Cultural Forum and many other sports, cultural and commercial activities. Every winter, the "Ice and Snow Exchange in Shougang Park" held at Big Air has formed a brand effect, attracting citizens to participate in snow entertainment and experience the charm of the Winter Olympics venues. The huge tough industrial structures and graceful natural scenery of Shougang Park provide citizens with a soft and friendly urban space.

Fei Fan said, "This is the first time I've come to Shougang Park. I like it very much. I watched it on TV before. I feel that it's very beautiful. I felt very shocked when I really came to Shougang Park this time. It used to be an industrial park but now it has become a big park, combining old buildings with the Olympic Games instead of destroying them. I really like this approach. This is a very, very good thing. It's very technological here and the construction is very high-end. I will come back again."

When the guests came to Blast Furnace No. 3, they boarded the 9.7-meter platform and 40-meter viewing platform successively to inspect the internal transformation on the spot, learn about conditions such as the gorgeous transformation of the blast furnace from an ironmaking facility to a large-scale show field, and learn about the overall construction situation of Shougang Park while overlooking its general panorama.

Blast Furnace No. 3 is Shougang's first modernized large-scale blast furnace with a volume of more than 2,500 m3. It condenses the industrial memory of Beijing and is known as the "meritorious blast furnace". Its group of buildings and structures is a precious portrayal of the technological value of independent innovation in China's steel and iron industry. During the transformation, core structures such as the blast furnace body, hot blast stoves and gravity dust collectors were retained, and the overall design and development were carried out using the height difference of the site to realize the harmony and unity of industry and nature. It has now been transformed into a new stage for cultural inheritance, an important global premiere center and a place for Internet celebrities to gather. It has undertaken various large-scale events such as the China Science Fiction Convention, Mercedes-Benz Press Conference, Beijing Fashion Week, BTV New Year's Eve Ceremony, Opening Ceremony of the Xishan-Yongding River Cultural Festival, etc.

Carl-Alexander Scheef (from Germany), Vice President of Bayer Healthcare Co., Ltd., said that in its transformation from a heavy industrial park to a modernized park, Shougang Park is a model of urban development and protective development, and has set a good example for other cities, which is very impressive. He said, "I like this concept of preserving the origin of industry very much. This is the precious history of our human development. At the same time, we will transform based on the century-old foundation, provide modernized places and services, integrate into the city and become a part of it. History and modernity go hand in hand. I think I've seen the future here. It is very, very well done. Congratulations to Shougang."

It was stated that since the establishment of the "Great Wall Friendship Award" in 1999, a total of 221 foreigners from 32 countries have won awards successively. A total of 15 foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Beijing won this great honor this time.