Goyang City Mayor Choi Sung visited Chinese city Changzhou on Wednesday and signed a memorandum of understanding to boost bilateral cooperation, the city government said.

The memorandum calls for the two cities to strengthen their friendship by cooperating on the economic front, as well as in the areas of tourism, traffic technology and the floricultural industry.

“(Through this opportunity) both cities will be able to step up as international cities by sharing policies and expanding development,” said Mayor Choi in a statement.

Changzhou is known as one of the important traffic hub cities in China, which has been actively increasing new investment in its traffic infrastructure in recent years. South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor also constructed its fourth manufacturing plant here in April 2015. Similar to Goyang which is adjacent to Seoul, Changzhou is in a metropolitan area west of Shanghai.

During the trip to China, Choi also visited China’s top-level institute Beijing University to give a lecture on the Korea-China relationship and its future leadership role.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)