The Mayor of Copenhagen expressed pride in a surge of Chinese tourists visiting the Danish capital and told the Global Times in an exclusive interview that "Chinese tourists behave so well."
"We are so proud that so many people from China travel to Copenhagen," said Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen.
With Chinese tourists increasingly interested in traveling to Europe, Jensen emphasized that protection of tourists was paramount to the city's tourism policy.
The number of Chinese visitors to Denmark has jumped fivefold in the past seven years from 50,000 in 2010. Last year, Chinese tourists made 226,000 overnight stays in Denmark, mostly in Copenhagen, according to the Copenhagen Post.
Copenhagen, dubbed "a fairy-tale city" by some Chinese media, is one of the most popular destinations for Chinese who are eager to explore and celebrate the works of Hans Christian Andersen.
Jensen said he was impressed that more Chinese knew Andersen's fairy tales than young Danes.
He suggested Copenhagen could also offer Chinese tourists a clean, green and healthy tourism experience.
When first elected mayor of Copenhagen in 2009, Jensen set an ambitious goal to make the city the world's first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.
Copenhagen is well on the way to achieving that goal, he said.
"We have reduced carbon emissions by 42 percent since 2005," he said.
The city now has a roadmap to realize carbon neutrality and needs more investment in electricity and traffic systems to eliminate emissions, he said.
Jensen first visited China 25 years ago and has since been a frequent visitor as the two capitals became sister cities in 2012. He said for a large city like Beijing, urban management could be much more complicated.
Urban planning is vital to leading a green transformation of a city at the same time as changing people's mind-set on sustainability, Jensen said.
Copenhagen has tried to improve the city's environment. The government has built a 350-kilometer bicycle lane in hopes of transforming it from a city of cars into one of bicycles.
Denmark supports free trade, Jensen said. He hoped trade frictions between US and China could be resolved by the two governments.
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