July is pleasant in Hamburg, Germany's second largest city which is to host the G20 summit on July 7-8.[Special coverage]
Hamburg is absolutely the right place for the summit, said Hamburg Major Olaf Scholz, who expressed a warm welcome to all the guests invited by the German federal government.
"German Chancellor Merkel asked me how about holding the next G20 summit in Hamburg? I did not hesitate to agree to that," said Scholz.
"The decision was absolutely correct. It is written in Hamburg's state law that Hamburg is a peaceful mediator of people's conflicts," he said.
Hamburg has been making preparations since the last G20 summit was held in Hangzhou, China in September 2016.
The main topics of the upcoming G20 Hamburg summit this year include the promotion of world economic growth, globalization and multilateralism, finance, trade, digital agendas, health care and poverty eradication in Africa.
Facing the challenge of terrorism, the Hamburg municipal government attaches great importance to the security measures for the G20 summit, and allocated about 20,000 police to secure the main venue of the summit.
Mounted police units, thousands of police cars, and some helicopters will be deployed to secure the two-day event. They will patrol the city's airport, the main railways station, the port of Hamburg and even the Elbe River.
Hamburg police chief Ralf Martin Meyer admitted that this is the largest operation in the history of Hamburg's police.
In the newly completed Elbe Philharmonic Hall, a concert is being prepared for the coming heads of state.
As Germany's largest port city, Hamburg became a sister city to Shanghai 30 years ago. It has now become a main portal along the routes of the China-proposed Silk and Road Initiative, where various kinds of containers carrying Chinese goods arrive.
Hamburg is a city full of openness, peace and wellness. With the Elbe River and the Alster River flowing across the city, Hamburg has demonstrated its spirit that echoes that of the G20 summit: to build a interconnected world.
