ZELIENOPLE — If you think Butler County is getting too crowded, you should try Haiyang, China.

Haiyang, in the Shandong province in eastern China, is a city of about 700,000 people.

Butler County has about 190,000 residents.

Both Butler County and the city of Haiyang are working to become "sister cities," said Jack Cohen, executive director of the Butler County Travel and Convention Bureau.

At Thursday's bureau meeting, Cohen said a meeting about the possible relationship was recently held in Cranberry Township with members of the Allegheny Conference and state tourism representatives to discuss developing the Haiyang connection.

Westinghouse Electric is building nuclear power plants in and around Haiyang, so that city contacted Cranberry Township about the Sister City program.

Sister Cities International is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that helps to create and strengthen partnerships between U.S. and international communities.

According to its Web site, the organization's goals are to:

• Develop municipal partnerships between U.S. cities, counties, or states and similar jurisdictions in other nations.

• Provide opportunities for city officials and citizens to experience and explore other cultures through long-term community partnerships.

• Create an atmosphere in which economic and community development can be implemented and strengthened.

• Stimulate environments through which communities will creatively learn, work and solve problems together through reciprocal cultural, educational, municipal, business, professional and technical exchanges, and projects.

Cohen said the Sunrise Rotary in Cranberry Township is working to develop the relationship between Butler County and Haiyang.

Terese Balzereit, director of International Marketing for the state Tourism Department, said the Sister City program is designed as a cultural exchange, "and in the promotion of a city in Pennsylvania can lead to growth in tourism and development."

Saxonburg has a sister city in Muehlhausen, Germany. German representatives visited the town this year, and Saxonburg officials reciprocated with a visit to Germany this summer.

Cohen told bureau board members there had been plans for the Haiyang mayor and more than 30 delegates to visit Butler County sometime this month, but that trip has been delayed.

"When they come, we need to host a banquet for them, because that's what they would expect in China," Cohen said.

"The Germans came to Saxonburg, then we had the French travel agents in Slippery Rock this summer and now China," he said. "It is really impressive the amount of international connections we now have to Butler County."