家鄉外交 (jiāxiāng wàijiāo): Hometown diplomacy

On Friday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Li's hometown in Anhui province. This is the first time Li has invited a foreign leader to visit his hometown.

Chancellor Merkel was on her eighth visit to China, which makes her the most frequent visitor to China among Western leaders. During her past visits she has been to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chengdu.

Anhui province is not a place that foreign leaders usually visit, thus Merkel's trip to Li's home province has been labeled "hometown diplomacy".

Li and Merkel first visited Hefei University, which was jointly founded by Anhui province and the state of Lower Saxony, Germany, in 1984. The two leaders said that Hefei University is a demonstration of China-Germany cooperation in education.

After visiting the university and attending an economic conference, Merkel visited Shenfu village in Hefei, which is a demonstration village for China's new rural construction.

Merkel's visit to Anhui province shows the close interaction between leaders of China and Germany, and highlights the two countries will further deepen their bilateral cooperation.