Millbrae Delegation Will Head to China in October

Millbrae will continue its global outreach in the Fall, and break new ground in the process.

A delegation of city leaders, and possibly Millbrae citizens, will travel to Kaiping, China during the month of October and visit schools, factories and have meetings with officials.

An official invitation for the visit was sent to Millbrae City Councilman Robert Gottschalk in late March by Wen Yan, the Mayor of Kaiping.

Millbrae already has two 'Sister Cities', in La Serena, Chile and Mosta, Malta. Kaiping is not yet a Sister City; since the relationship between the two urban areas is only three-years-old, the Chinese city is considered a 'Friendship City.' Sister City relationships occur after five years.

Discussion of the upcoming trip took up a good deal of the time Monday night at the Millbrae Sister Cities commission meeting.

The commission wants to create a structure at a site on Spur Trail near Magnolia Avenue and call it Kaiping Place to commemorate the relationship.

Commission member - and former Mayor - Robert Gottschalk said "What I envision is simple: Two posts and an arch in a Chinese style."

The commission hopes to find public funding for the project.  It's unlikely the structure can be completed before October, so Gottschalk hopes a project sketch can be agreed on before the trip, giving the travelling delegates something they can show to their Chinese hosts.

Kaiping ( 开平) is located in Guangdong Province, nearly as far south in China as the country extends, and had a population of 680,000 as of 2003.

According to Wikipedia, "Kaiping was a major source of emigrants at the turn of the 20th century. As a result, a large number of early Chinese Canadian and Chinese American communities had people who originated from Kaiping and its neighboring counties of Taishan, Enping and Xinhui. It is said that there are more Kaipingnese people living abroad today than there are Kaipingnese in Kaiping."

Those travelling in October will foot their own bill. There will be no cost to city taxpayers. If you're interested in being considered as a delegate, you should contact commission Chairwoman Doris Morse at millbraeca@aol.com.

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