To be international friendship cities and interact under this mechanism is the basic form and also traditional way of contemporary city diplomacy. As the capital and political center of PRC，Beijing undertakes the mission of building a international center for international exchange. Although Beijing’s international friendship city diplomacy started late，it has made rapid progress. After the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic，Beijing actively cooperates with international friendship cities in various forms in carrying out “anti-COVID-19 diplomacy”，while also accepting assistance in the early stage. These mutual assistance has helped enhance the capacity of epidemic prevention and control in each city，and have closed the people-to-people ties，also demonstrated the responsible international image of Beijing and China. At the same time，the epidemic situation has also exposed the deficiencies of Beijing’s international friendship city diplomacy，such as the imbalance between quantity and quality，the symbolic meaning is greater than the actual function. COVID-19 pandemic is both a challenge and an opportunity for Beijing’s international friendship city diplomacy. In the future，Beijing should go beyond the concept of quantity，be more active in the stock management and intimacy promotion of friendship city relations，make use of the opportunity of anti-epidemic and its own advantages to actively “wake up” dormant international friendship cities，and adhere to the principle of combining justice with benefit and putting righteousness first to carry out various forms of pragmatic cooperation with friendship cities，so as to serve the overall national diplomacy in the new era.