Coventry and Baoding build closer ties through education exchange and shared history

A flourishing international relationship is developing between Coventry and Baoding, an industrial city in Hebei Province, northern China. 

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Coventry has long been internationally recognised as a City of Peace, shaped by its wartime experience and unfaltering commitment to reconciliation. These values now underpin a developing relationship with Baoding, which translates as “protecting the capital”. Situated about 150 km southwest of Beijing, it guards the capital's southern approach.

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The connection first began in 2024 with an exchange programme with Cardinal Newman School, facilitated and organised by HBISP. More than 90 students from Baoding were welcomed to Coventry by the Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation where they met the Lord Mayor during visits to the UK over the summers of 2024 and 2025. 

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During their trips the students enjoyed a tour led by Lady Godiva herself where they visited many of the city’s cultural sites, including the Cathedral Ruins, the Cathedral Blitz Museum, Herbert Museum, the Transport Museum and St Mary’s Guildhall. 

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The similarities between the two cities are uncanny, both were shaped by the motor industry, retain advanced automotive research and development facilities, are home to universities, and Baoding also experienced similar wartime hardship, having been occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War from 1937 to 1945.  

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A key milestone was reached during the latest visit in July 2025, when the delegation presented Coventry’s Lord Mayor, Cllr Rachel Lancaster, with an invitation from the Mayor of Baoding to, in turn, visit their city. This marks a big step forward in perspective of a more formal relationship between the two cities, rooted in similar values, shared history and a mutual respect for education.