"The night is so beautiful; we feel so good at night -- in Moscow's suburbs," sang Gennady Boiko to an enthusiastic audience in Shanghai who surprised the artist when most were able to join in the traditional ode to the Russian capital.

The all-out rendition of "Moscow's Suburbs" was a poignant highlight for the 2,000 people attending the kick off to St. Petersberg Week being hosted in China's largest city this week, a major event of the China-Russia Year in 2006.

Svetlana Nesterova, a member of parliament at the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, said she was pleasantly surprised to find many officials in Shanghai could sing "Katyusha" -- in Russian no less.

"Music shortens the distance even between strangers," she said in an interview with Xinhua.

Rather than strangers, China and Russia are more like bed-fellows who became estranged but are now making up for lost time.

China and Russia are not only physically and politically close, Ding Peihua, a researcher on Russian culture with Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, says the two peoples are also emotionally close. "When New China was founded in 1949, it closely followed suite of the former Soviet Union in politics, economy and culture."

The poetic songs, dances and operas of the former Soviet Union, he said, cheered the Chinese nation in the 1950s. "In fact, there was a strong affinity between China and the former Soviet Union, which was dubbed 'big brother'.

At the height of the Cold War, Russia and China relations also became more than a little frosty. Then in the late 1970's China and Russia took opposite forks in their respective paths to development. In 1989 Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Beijing put the two nations back on the same track.

Yet, China's love of Russian art and culture never really faded. Hundreds of Russian artists have toured China and a recent double twist of respect and closeness has seen a Chinese ballet troupe perform the 100-year-old Russian ballet, Swan Lake, in Russia.

The ongoing St. Petersburg Week, a highlight of China's Year of Russia, sparked a heated discussion in the local media on how to promote Sino-Russian friendship today.

"The Chinese blindly followed their 'big brother' and copied the Russian experience 50 years ago," said Ding. "Today, the Chinese and Russians are renewing their traditional friendship in an era of economic restructuring."

For most Russians see China undergoing massive changes and improvements, said Nesterova. "And Shanghai in particular is a metropolitan city with high rises and maglev trains traveling at 431 km an hour."

Nikita Kolianov, a young footballer from Russian youth football team "Zenita", says he knows very few Chinese but is an avid fan of Houston Rockets center Yao Ming. "Yao is superb," said the boy.

Nesterova said she is confident Russian and Chinese youngsters will carry forward the traditional friendship between their countries.

"To promote exchanges we have to start by removing the language barrier," she said. "Chinese is a mandatory course at most secondary schools in St. Petersburg."

Source: Xinhua