City of sanctuary

She tells China Daily that she wants to boost business ties between Tianjin and Israel.

"Tianjin has one of the largest Israeli desalination facilities in China and we're trying to explore more opportunities in medical, new energy and other industrial sectors," she says.

After the seminar, she held an in-depth talk with Song about the photo show, during which Song shared her experiences of collecting the photos and letters on display.

Song says: "When I began to search for the photos in Tianjin's archives and libraries, I could hardly find any.

"I was fortunate that many Jewish associations around the world supported my project to trace the Jewish people's steps in Tianjin."

Song was impressed to find that many Jewish people said they loved Tianjin so deeply that they "felt it hard to describe in words".

"Among the people in the show, two are still alive in their 90s," she says.

Song has been in close contact with many of the people whose photos are on show, and she has accompanied some of them to revisit Tianjin since 2001.