"How happy we are to have friends from afar." Liu Jiayi, Party chief of Shandong, quoted the classic saying from the Analects when he delivered a speech on Wednesday to welcome more than 800 foreign guests attending the ongoing Shandong International Friendship Cities Conference for Cooperation and Development in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province.

A total of 886 foreign guests from 33 countries, including sister city delegates and foreign diplomats in China, are participating in the conference, scheduled to end on Sunday.

Since the province's first friendship bond was cultivated between Qingdao, a coastal city of Shandong and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi prefecture of Japan in 1979, the province has fostered over 200 friendship ties with local governments in 61 countries over the past 40 years.

Shandong has also established partnerships with 1,167 educational, medical, and other institutes in 75 countries.

The friendship, which has been enhanced through exchanges and cooperation, has achieved a lot in promoting culture and civilization integration, realizing economic prosperity and sharing benefits, Liu said.

Aiming to further boost trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between Shandong and the world, the conference features diverse activities including forums focusing on medium- and small-sized enterprises, culture and tourism promotion, a photo exhibition and a trade fair.

As an activity of the conference, an international friendship cities trade fair was held in Jinan from Tuesday to Thursday.

Covering an area of nearly 4,000 square meters, the fair displayed a wide range of commodities including cosmetics, food, arts and crafts, tourism products, household necessities and agricultural products from sister cities.