SF-Shanghai: longtime pals

The two major cities established a friendship in 1980, have created more than 200 exchanges

Friendship between San Francisco and Shanghai has continued to advance over the years, and will continue to play an exemplary role in drawing people from different circles closer, said local business and community leaders.

Since the two cities established a sister-cities relationship in the 1980s, Shanghai and San Francisco have launched more than 200 exchange programs in almost every field, and the door for communication and collaboration remains wide open.

Among all sister cities between China and the US, "probably no relationship has been more active over the years than the San Francisco-Shanghai relationship", said Mark Chandler, director of San Francisco's international trade and commerce division, in a recent interview with Shanghai media.

One year after the United States and China officially resumed diplomatic relations, then the mayor of San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein, visited Shanghai, signing an agreement on Jan 18, 1980 with Vice-Mayor Zhao Xingzhi that established a friendship-city relationship and launched an era of ongoing good-will and mutual trust.

Among the many programs aimed at enhancing mutual understanding, the business management program, which was initiated by the then Shanghai Mayor Wang Daohan and Feinstein, has been especially fruitful.

Through the program, young leaders from Shanghai with backgrounds in foreign trade, finance, medicine and hotel management were sent to San Francisco for training for six-month to two-year terms. A total of 103 individuals from 1984 to 2009 received on-the-job training by studying at local US universities and interning at businesses or government organizations.

The trainees, who knew little of Western economies or governance in the beginning, have grown into skilled civil servants and business executives. "Some of them have even taken charge of Shanghai's major projects, such as designing and supervising the development of the Pudong New Area," said Chandler.

In 1987, Chandler was appointed as an adviser to the mayor of San Francisco. "I've thereafter been dealing with Shanghai for 32 years," he said.

"Visionary leaders have taken bold steps in order to push forward the city-to-city relationship," said Florence Fang, a San Francisco-based philanthropist and community leader. "I've witnessed how the two cities have learned from each other, and benefited tremendously from the cooperation."

Exchanges are concrete and have yielded abundant outcomes, she said.

Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Corporation made headlines in 2012 after it won the bid to rebuild the steel structure of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which reportedly had cracks and damage from an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale in 1989 and years of corrosion.

The Ossen Group in Shanghai designed and manufactured the main cable strands and suspension cables of the bridge, the first mono-tower self-anchored suspension bridge in the world, with a designed service life of around 120 years and the capacity to withstand earthquakes 8.0 or above on the Richter scale.

When the bridge was re-opened to the public in 2013, the entire Bay Area was elated, said Fang, adding the project was proof that China's manufacturing technology is world-class.

Meanwhile, cultural and people-to-people exchanges are thriving, too. In January, Shanghai showcased a variety of cultural works — movies, musical pieces, TV shows, documentaries, Peking Opera, Shanghai Opera, burlesque and other entertainment — in San Francisco to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the US.

"This is the first time that Shanghai has sponsored an event on the West Coast on such a grand scale," said Fang, adding it demonstrated Shanghai's sincerity and appreciation of the friendship with San Francisco.