The city of Noblesville is forging a sister-city relationship with its first-ever city in Asia.

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Mayor John Ditslear says he's welcoming a delegation from Yun-Cheng, China Saturday. He says they'll be signing a sister-city exploration agreement. Ditslear says Yun-Cheng is located in Shanxi Province in the Golden Triangle of China. He says it has a population of 4.9 milllion people and is very historic and cultural.

The mayor says Golden Tree LLC CEO Ken Carter of Indianapolis helped arrange the deal. He says Carter had connections in China and sought his input. Ditslear says he'll be meeting briefly with Yun-Cheng's deputy mayor and that city's agriculture leaders. The mayor says Noblesville has relationships with sister cities in Brazil and Italy, neither of which has resulted in business deals as of yet.

Ditslear says Noblesville has a 3600-acre corporate campus adjacent to I-69 which makes it ripe for new business enterprise. He believes that may be playing a role in Chinese interest. However, they haven't yet discussed any business.