On the morning of November 12, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived at the German state Nordrhein-Westfalen from Berlin and on the afternoon visited the Ruhr industrial area, learning about the industrial restructuring and transformation of old German industrial base.

At about 4:00 p.m., Hu arrived at Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen. He first toured the Stein commercial district where he was warmly welcomed by the district's head and staffs. RAG chairman Müller delivered a welcome speech to Hu's visit to the Ruhr industrial area. Hu listened to the introduction of RAG's industrial restructuring by the general manager of RAG's coal and real estate subsidiary and asked detailed questions on the reemployment of workers during RAG's industrial transformation. Hu also visited RAG's office building transformed from a coal mine well frame and an IKEA logistics center.

Latter Hu visited the family of retired worker Guenter Twardy who was once a fitter and erector and had been to China for more than 20 times installing or debugging coal mine well support equipment imported from RAG for Chinese businesses. Twardy and his wife extended warm welcome to Hu. Hu held cordial talks with Twardy's family, asking questions about their work and life and thanking them for their contributions to the cooperation between Chinese and German businesses.

The Ruhr industrial area located in the west of Germany crosses more than 10 cities and originally relied on coal mining and steel production as the major industries. In the 1960s and 1970s the area launched the industrial restructuring and transformation. Today emerging industries, service industry and high-tech industry in this area grow rapidly and its industrial restructuring has achieved fruitful results.

On the afternoon, Hu also met with Juergen Ruettgers, premier of Nordrhein-Westfalen. During the meeting Hu said that Nordrhein-Westfalen has accumulated rich experiences in economic restructuring and transformation and some Chinese provinces and cities can strengthen cooperation with the state in this area and expand cooperation in such fields as economy, culture, education, science and technology as well. Ruettgers expressed cordial welcome to Hu and said that his state will take Hu's visit as an opportunity to further reinforce the friendly cooperation with related Chinese provinces and cities.

Earlier in the day when Hu Jintao arrived at Duesseldorf from Berlin by a special plane, he was received by Ruettgers at the airport. On the evening Hu attended the welcome dinner hosted by Ruettgers.

Hu also met with staffs of the Chinese Consulate-General in Frankfurt the same day.