More Chinese cities are expanding their international friendships across the globe. The Shandong International Friendship Cities Conference for Cooperation and Development opened in the province's capital Jinan on Wednesday. More than 800 foreign guests from over 30 countries attended the event.

Salisbury is a small city in Australia with a population of 140,000 people. And it built a friendship with the city of Linyi in Shandong as early as 30 years ago.

Graham Reynolds, a councilor of the north ward of Salisbury, listed their cooperation projects with Linyi. "Water management – turning water that comes off roads and put it through wetlands then pump it in so we save more water. We have a maple leaf school in Salisbury as well so we have education with high school students as well. That's what we've been doing with Linyi."

Reynolds also says they are looking towards future cooperation with Linyi in waste management and AI technology. And they hope to build on the friendship and help each other out. He believes the sister relationship helps solve common issues on both sides.

"It's fantastic. We are a global community. We can't just look at our own little area and not worry about anyone else. We've got global problems and things we do in one area can affect a lot areas. So we have to work on things together and talk and collaborate and innovate together because we're on [the] globe," said Reynolds.

This year marks the 40th anniversary since Shandong first established a foreign friendship with Shimonoseki, Japan. Now Shandong has become friends with more than 200 local governments from 61 countries in the world.

Li Yongsen, deputy director of Shandong Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, revealed why Shandong has attracted so many international friends. "Shandong has the nation's third largest economic volume. Its agriculture industry ranks number one nationally and its industrial sector ranks number two. With a population of 100 million people, Shandong has a huge production and consumption market, which means bigger development opportunities for other countries."

Li also says many Shandong companies have invested more in overseas markets, building factories there and taking part in major projects in various fields. So far Shandong has invested over 16 billion U.S. dollars in countries along the Belt and Road.

In 1973, Tianjin was the first Chinese city that established friendship with a foreign city, Kobe in Japan. Now decades have passed and China has built sister city partnerships with more than 2,600 cities in 138 countries in the world, according to statistics from the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.