On 18th May, Consul General Ma Qiang attended the launch ceremony of Citadel of the Stars, a sculpture to celebrate the Chinese Year of Ox. Lord Provost of Edinburgh Frank Ross, Chair of Edinburgh Tourism Action Group's China Ready Initiative Rob Lang, Director of the Scottish Confucius Institute for Business & Communication Ian Baxter joined the event at VisitScotland's i-Centre in Edinburgh.

Consul General Ma said at an interview that the sculpture is a perfect combination of Chinese ox and Scottish Highland Cow. Linking the installation of Citadel of the Stars to the recent landing of China's rover Zhurong on the Mars, Mr. Ma pointed out this is the right time for launch of the artwork, and it will promote a better mutual understanding of both the Chinese and the Scottish culture. He also expressed his confidence in the joint contributions of the two peoples in building a community with a shared future for humanity.

The artwork was created by Ian Kirkpatrick, who was inspired by Carl Sagan "We're children equally of the Earth and the sky...National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space...when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent, fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars."