Vladimir Putin, 59, was in the region glad-handing as part of his campaign for a third term as president in 2012.
Russian PM also visited a municipal district ambulance, a local hospital, a school of arts and a community centre.
The unlikely recipient of the Beijing’s equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize.
A panel of 16 academics chose Vladimir Putin ahead of other candidates, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Yuan Longping, a Chinese agricultural scientist.
The tipping point appeared to be Vladimir Putin’s role in Libya, where he opposed NATO’s involvement in trying to topple the Gaddafi regime. Critics say Vladimir Putin’s stand had no bearing on the outcome of the north African conflict.
“This April or May, Putin was against NATO’s idea to bomb Libya and he appeared to the world in a peaceful manner,” said Qiao Damo, one of the organizers.
The “Confucius Peace Prize” is as controversial as its choice of honouree.
It was only launched last year, just two days after jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel prize to Beijing’s anger.
The thinly-veiled attempt to upstage the Nobel ended in farce when last year’s winner, Taiwan’s former vice president Lien Chan, failed to show up and the $15,000 award was collected for him by a schoolgirl.
Even the Chinese government was uncomfortable at the transparency of the attempt to undermine the long established peace award. The Culture Ministry ordered organizers to scrap the award in September, saying they were not given official permission to go ahead.
But the panel defied the decision, arguing it was “unreasonable” to cancel the prize at such late notice. Nine of the 16 judges voted for Vladimir Putin.
“I feel the Nobel Peace Prize has gone too far away from peace and their standard has gone too far away from the essence of peace,” said Qiao Damo.
“Western values are not perfect and need an alternative to balkance them out,” he added.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons President-elect Donald Trump celebrated his election victory at the Ultimate Fighting…
Millions of voters across the US chose to return Donald Trump to the White House…
Donald Trump declares victory in the US election as he addresses jubilant supporters in Florida.…
Stocks around the world are rising as Donald Trump appears to be on the cusp…
Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia and taken a lead over Kamala…
Quincy Jones, the celebrated musician and producer who worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Ray…