Fu Guomin instructed Fan Lidada to take the initiative. Reluctantly, Fan Lidada had no choice but to brace himself and go. He chose the Jiangdu Cultural and Tourism Bureau. First, because it's a brother city within the province, and second, among the seven cities visiting, their tourism revenue was believed to be the closest to Jiangdu's—at least so they thought, when in reality, Jiangdu's tourism revenue was more than double theirs.
Upon hearing that Dongzhou wanted to sign a cooperative agreement with them, Qi Hongyan immediately smiled and said, "There's no need for that. Our two cities are too close, both being brother cities within the same province. We should unite against external competition."
Although her words were polite, the underlying implication was a refusal. Such cooperation requires matched partners, and since both sides were not on the same level of development, what benefits would they gain from collaborating with you?
