Guangzhou Special: Cities summit closes, more links made

Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, signed partnerships with the city of Pokhara in Nepal and Quito, the capital of Ecuador, on Saturday, increasing its total number of sister cities to 36 and bringing the 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference to a successful close.

The South China metropolis linked with its first sister city - Fukuoka, Japan - in 1979 and has been active since making friends with foreign cities to introduce Guangzhou to the world.

Guangzhou's cooperation with friendship cities in the past 35 years has been productive and benefited the city's reform and opening up and its social and economic development, said officials.