The fluctuating friendship between China and the UK is well documented, but a series of local relationships have also developed over the last few decades.

These regional links are aimed at promoting better cultural understanding and fostering closer friendships and business ties.

One of them is a twenty year old link between south west England and southern China.

Bristol and Guangzhou may be almost 10,000 kilometers apart, but both sides have put a lot of work into developing a strong relationship.

Dianne Francombe runs the Bristol and West of England China Bureau.

She told CGTN that at a time when national governments have areas of disagreement - local relationships are more important than ever:

"You build friends through thick and thin, through good and bad and that is what we need to do across the world with all these different civilizations and countries and cultures and build that greater understanding of each other. Friends aren't always friends, there are moments when you fall out over something or disagree over something and it's the same thing in these professional relationships. We may not always agree with everything but we need to rationalize what's going on for each other and come to some sort of mutual understanding to help us get over the hurdles.”

Despite a thriving Chinese community and student population in Bristol, the challenges of language, culture and distance make regional links difficult at the best of times. But the pandemic has made it even harder. Events aimed at solidifying existing partnerships and encouraging further trade have had to be held virtually.

For 10 years Richard Lowe has supported companies from South West England to help forge ever closer links with China. He led the first trade delegation from the region to Guangzhou in 2012.

His training business, Hewlett Rand, made the switch to online when the pandemic started... and although things have been hard, Richard also believes travel bans have created opportunities.

"We've got the time at the moment to plan out what we want to do, where we want to go. Now is the time for planning. Be thinking about your market entry. Because actually before you get on a plane you need to do it anyway."

With the pandemic limiting in person visits, keeping the relationship strong between Bristol and Guangzhou remains a challenge... but there is optimism going forward about the many benefits that closer ties can bring.