A delegation led by Qingdao vice-mayor Liu Mingjun visited Manchester and London, UK from Feb 24 to 25, according to qdbofcom.gov.cn.

The delegation visited the University of Manchester, which specializes in chemistry and scientific materials, on Feb 24.

Andre Geim, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics and professor at the University of Manchester, remarked upon Qingdao’s increased production of graphene, a material used in the production of semiconductors and electronics.

Geim was honored by Qingdao's economic counselor last year and has worked with two Qingdao-based graphene companies.

On the second day, the delegation visited the City of London, headquarters of PricewaterhouseCoopers and London Stock Exchange.

The alderman of the City of London, Charles Bowman hoped the City and Qingdao could strengthen their cooperation in the financial field.

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of London Stock Exchange, said he planned to visit Qingdao later this year to introduce London Stock Exchange and to help Qingdao businesses go public.

Liu encouraged enterprises from Qingdao and UK to strengthen links at a meeting where both sides reached an agreement of cooperation in a number of areas, including, movie and television, youth soccer and joint hospitals and schools of economics and finance.