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Victoria's China delegation inks partnerships

City delegation's trip to China in October proves fruitful

Renren is dubbed China's Facebook.

While it may not have any cache on this side of the Pacific Ocean, a promotional post about Victoria could yield big returns for the tourism industry here.

On a recent delegation to China, Tourism Victoria agreed to market the city of Suzhou on Facebook and Twitter, in exchange for the same social-media promotion by the Suzhou Tourism Bureau.

It's one example of several agreements resulting from a 21-person delegation to China in October.

Representatives from the city – including Mayor Dean Fortin – business, tourism and educational sectors spent 10 days visiting five cities.

Other highlights include an agreement between the Sooke School District and the Mingde School in Changsha that will bring 50 Chinese students to study here.

Changsha is also looking to invest $100,000 to bring 50 Victoria students to the city for a three- to four-week summer exchange program.

The delegation also met with prospective Chinese universities, investors, tour operators and trade officials to discuss processing times for VISA (why capped?)– the main bottleneck for tourists from Asia.

rholmen@vicnews.com