Changsha city in Central China's Hunan province has now its 39th sister city in the world. Changsha and Kansas City of the US state of Missouri have been declared sister cities.

Rui Yingzi, the deputy director of Changsha Municipal People's Congress, visited Kansas City, the United States Jan 25 to 27.

During the visit, she reached an agreement with Sly James, the mayor of Kansas City, to establish sister city ties between the two cities.

Both Changsha and Kansas City are important cities in the central part of their countries. The two are expected to have a wide range of cooperation areas as they enjoy similar characteristics in terms of geographical locations within their respective countries, transportation and economic development issues.

Changsha has various sister cities in eastern, western, and northern United States, and this new tie with Kansas City mid-west US is significant to the strategic layout of China's foreign exchanges.

Kansas City is an industrial and commercial center in the mid-west of the US. The city is home to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is famous for its collection of art works from Asia. It is also birthplace of the musical styles of Kansas City jazz and Kansas City blues.

So far Changsha has had 39 sister cities from 23 countries all over the world.