Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann and five members of the delegation traveled by bullet train from Shanghai to Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang Province. This province is a sister-state with Indiana and Hangzhou is sister-city to Indianapolis.
Upon arrival, the group was met by Zhejiang officials, who hosted a boat tour around West Lake, the province’s premiere recreational and spiritual destination.
In honor of the visit, Lt. Governor hosted a luncheon, sponsored by Indiana’s Maple Leaf Farms, attended by officials from a variety of local departments including education, agriculture and business development.The menu featured duck from Maple Leaf Farms, which is headquartered in Kosciusko County.
In the afternoon the delegation visited the largest Chinese online retailer, Alibaba. The company, which reaches over 200 countries, was founded by Jack Ma, an English teacher in Hangzhou with the mission “to make it easy to do business anywhere,” and help entrepreneurs access the global marketplace to grow small businesses worldwide.
The day long visit to Zhejiang concluded with the signing of a relationship agreement between the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) and the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Foreign Affairs. Indiana currently has 25 sister city relationships in Zhejiang. The agreement signed today is to further develop current relationships and continue to look for opportunities to grow the sister cities.