Participants line up to taste Xiaolongbao, or steamed soup dumplings, during the Shanghai Food Festival and Tourism Promotion at Macy's flagship store in New York, the United States, Nov 19, 2018. Themed "Eat, Love, Shanghai", the three-day event kicked off here on Monday, aiming to attract more American tourists to Shanghai by introducing its unique culinary culture. [Photo/Xinhua]

In 2016, Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration and NYC & Company jointly announced that the two cities had formed a city-to-city tourism partnership to promote tourism in both cities.

The "Eat, Love, Shanghai" promotional event was a key event to mark the second anniversary of the partnership between the two cities.

The United States is Shanghai's second largest source of international visitors. In 2017, the city welcomed 737,500 American tourists, a 6-percent growth from the previous year and about 600,000 US tourists visited Shanghai in the first three quarters of 2018, about 12.25-percent increase from the same period last year, according to data from Shanghai tourism authority.