On November 11, 2016, during the first Chinese-Hellenic Cities Forum, Nanjing Municipal Government presented a plaque of appreciation to the Chinese Embassy in Greece, for its important role in support of Nanjing to carry out foreign exchanges.

Ambassador Zou Xiaoli met with Yang Xiaoyang, Deputy Secretary-General of the Nanjing Municipal Government. Deputy Secretary-General Yang said that with the strong support of the Chinese Embassy in Greece, especially that of Ambassador Zou Xiaoli, Nanjing's exchanges with Greek side have achieved leap-forward development. In April 2014, Mayor Miao Ruilin led a delegation to visit Greece, and successfully held the flame collection ceremony of Nanjing Youth Olympic Games. In November 2015, Vice Mayor Sun Jianyou visited Greece and reached a preliminary cooperation consensus with Mayor of Marathon Ilias Psinakis. In October 2016, with the assistance of the Embassy, Mayor Psinakis was invited to visit Nanjing and signed a sister city agreement with Nanjing. Since then, Marathon has become the first sister city of Nanjing in Greece. In the same month, the Sixth World Historical and Cultural Cities Expo was held in Nanjing. With the support of the Embassy, Mayor of Sparta and Vice Mayor of Heraklion were ​​invited to the event, which greatly expanded Nanjing's exchanges with Greece. In addition, the embassy has provided valuable suggestion repeatedly on the cooperation between Nanjing and Greece, to consolidate the cooperation outcomes and enrich the work approaches.

Ambassador Zou Xiaoli noted that it was the responsibility of the Embassy to support local exchanges and cooperation. Nanjing has rich history, culture, science and technology, and human resources. He hoped Nanjing would take its advantages to play a leading role in China-Greece friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation. He said the Embassy will continue to give its support in this regard.