A delegation headed by Zhanjiang vice mayor Cao Xing, visited Canada and the United States recently, to draw on experiences and attract investment for the Zhanjiang section of the Guangdong Coastal Highway.

The general information of Zhanjiang, along with its business environment and coastal tourist resources were detailed at a promotional conference held in Markham, which claims to be "Canada's High-Tech Capital" with a number of key companies in the city.

Talks were held with local enterprises engaged in tourism, real estate development and scientific research to discuss cooperation in intelligent parking, medical treatment and multimedia, for the purpose of attracting them to settle or invest in Zhanjiang.

The publicity campaign at the following stop in New York attracted a lot of interest. Representatives from Nassau county said that visiting Zhanjiang next year is high on the agenda of local government and that the county would like to take the lead in cooperating with the city in infrastructure, tourism and tertiary industry.

The delegation also sought advice from experts from the Los Angeles Tourism Association, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association Los Angeles and California Highway Authority to take reference from the construction, operation, tourism and development of the California State Route 1.

California State Route 1 is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of California and is famous for its scenic beauty. With beaches, parks, and other attractions along the coast, it is one of the world's most popular travel routes and brings several billion dollars to the local tourism industry annually. Relying on their insight and experiences, the experts offered practical suggestions on natural landscape preservation, tourism promotion, resource allocation, expert recruitment and support facility construction for the Zhanjiang section of the highway.

The Guangdong Coastal Highway, which entails an initial investment of more than 130 billion yuan ($19.6 billion), will stretch more than 1,600 kilometers to run through 14 coastal cities and 90 scenic spots in Guangdong. Upon completion, it will become the longest coastal highway in the world.