On June 23, 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of Moscow Patriarchate, at the completion of the official program of visit in the People's Republic of China arrived in Harbin. The head of the DECR is visiting China with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and at the invitation of China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA).
At the airport of Harbin, Metropolitan Hilarion was met by Mr. Zhang Kaifeng, Deputy Head of Religious and Ethnic Affairs of Heilongjiang Province, Ms. Jin Ruisheng, the deputy head of the Office of Religious and Ethnic Affairs in city of Harbin, Ms. Xiao Hong, deputy head of the Department of International Relations of SARA, and Mr Hao Zhuyan, deputy head of the first division of the Fourth Department of SARA.
In the evening in the "Shangri-la" hotel. Mr. Yang Haixin, head of the Office of Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Harbin City, gave a reception in honor of the DECR chairman.
The reception was also attended by Mr. Zhang Kaifeng, deputy chief of the Office of Religious and Ethnic Affairs of Heilongjiang Province, Ms. Jin Ruisheng, deputy chief of the Office of Religious and Ethnic Affairs in city of Harbin, Ms. Xiao Hong, deputy director of International Relations of SARA, Mr Hao Zhuyan, deputy head of the first division of the Fourth Department of SARA, D.I. Petrovsky, member of the Russian delegation to the Department for External Church Relations of Moscow Patriarchate, L.M. Sevastyanov, executive director of St. Gregory the Theologian Foundation, and subdeacon A.A. Ershov, and also Russian diplomats - A.P. Povalyaev, first secretary of the Russian Embassy in China and D. Ganzhurov, vice-consul of the Consulate General of Russia in Shenyang.