Ms McCreath, who has travelled to China 11 times in the past decade, was recently given a Certificate of Honour for her contribution to tourism in Wuxi, a Chinese city outside of Shanghai.

Ms McCreath first travelled to China with Canberra University in 1998, where she met tour guide Ben Xu in Wuxi.

“I was so impressed with his ability that I kept in contact with him and I’ve since taken eight groups of people to China,” she said.

“The biggest group I’ve taken was 36.”

Ms McCreath said her last trip, when she was given the tourism certificate, was the smallest group she had taken with 12 people, including four children.

She said she has now been to China 11 times, always visiting Wuxi, which has a population of six million people. Mr Xu has visited Batemans Bay twice, the last time in March with three orphans in tow.

Ms McCreath said the orphans’ visit was organised by Jim Johns and Rachel Sweeney-Johns from Batemans Bay’s McDonalds restaurant.

She said the head of the Wuxi Social Welfare Institute would be travelling to Batemans Bay in the near future to look at how the shire handles employment for people with disabilities. Many of the orphans at the institute have disabilities.

Ms McCreath said she hoped Batemans Bay and Wuxi could develop a sister city relationship.