My First PediCab Ride at the Portland Grand Floral Parade 2018

Article contributed by Yeshe Versluys

(The son of PSSCA board member JeanLi)

Hi, my name is Yeshe and I attend Lake Oswego Junior High.

On June 9th, 2018, I participated for my first time in the annual Grand Floral Parade, part of Portland’s Rose Festival. I had a great time riding in the pedi-cab representing the Suzhou-Portland Sister City Association. We (My mom and I) arrived bright and early in the morning at the meeting place (which took some effort to find) and immediately got to work, decorating our cab with bundles of bright and scented flowers. Our fellow decorators from other associations commended us on our extravagant bundles of flowers lining the bright orange cab. Finally, our group arrived at the start of the parade, and I saw just how complex, but well organized an operation this was. Horses lined the street, their riders mounted high above everyone else, sporting bright colors and intricate designs in their clothing. I also noticed the various floats that were positioned behind our ensemble of 20 or so carts. Then we started moving.

I have two favorite moments from the parade; the first one was when our caravan entered the coliseum. I remember waving at the massive crowd of people lining the edges of the room, I couldn’t help but smile, taken away by the big audience and grand introduction. As our fleet exited the coliseum, I knew this would be a fun day.

My other favorite moment from the parade was seeing all of the different people, from different backgrounds and a wide range of ethnicities, coming together for this event. It brought a grin to my face as we paraded down the streets smiling, waving, and our drivers cheering their heads off (figuratively). I also enjoyed seeing people’s faces light up when they recognized the various cities being represented, I heard people on the side saying things like “Oh, Oh, Suzhou! I recognize that!”. I even saw some of my classmates there.

All in all, I had such an amazing time and I look forward to attending and maybe even participating next year!

2017 Evening Under The Stars Gala

An evening to be remembered, many years to come, for so many wonderful reasons.

Mayor Ted Wheeler welcomed Suzhou Foreign Affairs Director Xu Huadong to Portland for which PSSCA President Lynne McIntyre and Elizabeth Edwards, Interim Director, Office of Government Relations at City of Portland participated in the gift exchange.

There was the heartfelt speech by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler extolling the friendship and important meaning of the Portland Sister City relationship with Suzhou. That incredible friendship was confirmed when the Mayor bestowed upon PSSCA’s Foreign Affairs Officer, Lu Hehe as an Honorary Citizen of Portland. Known to her friends here in Portland as Dorathy, she was honored for her 13 years of dedicated service to PSSCA. Former Mayor Bud Clark, one of the founding fathers of PSSCA, joined Bonnie Starkey, PSSCA Secretary in the ceremony.

The Mayor congratulated Julie Richman, Principal of the Hope Chinese Charter School for the PSSCA Cultural Leadership Award for the school’s award-winning participation in the Jiangsu Province International Youth Art Competition. Director Zhang Jian accepted the PSSCA Educational Leadership Award on behalf of the Confucius Institute, celebrating their 10th Anniversary at Portland State University. Mr. Lu Chen, Senior Logistics Director, GC for Nike Logistic Center in Suzhou accepted the PSSCA Business Leadership Award. Rachel Burlington, Curator of the Portland's International Rose Test Garden was honoured for her cooperation with PSSCA in establishing a Portland Suzhou dedicated Rose Bed that will be on display at the Garden. Once again Andre and Ardina Wang honored a PSU Scholarship Award to Yamin Hong who is in pursuing a degree in accounting.

This special evening will also be foremost remembered for PSSCA President Lynne McIntyre’s wonderful stewardship of emceeing PSSCA’s Evening Under the Stars Gala for the very last time. She recently announced to the Board of PSSCA that she will be relocating to Los Angeles to join her daughter. She has been President of PSSCA on two different occasions and has been a member of the Board since 1998. She will be dearly missed. We wish her the very best and thank her for her long and dedicated service to PSSCA.

PSSCA wishes to thank the following sponsors for helping make this fundraising evening a most successful one: Platinum Sponsor, The Lan Su Chinese Garden and Polytech Heating LLC, Griffin Mesher & Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP; Gold Sponsor, The Confucius Institute and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services; Bronze Sponsorship, donor-bridge, Mark Spencer hotel and the Oregon - China Sister State Relations Council.

2017 Commercial Delegation Visit from Suzhou’s Jiangsu Province

On May 10, a distinguished 15-member delegation from Suzhou’s Jiangsu Province arrived at Portland City Hall for an economic development meeting. It was led by Deputy Director Wu Hui, Division of Foreign Affairs, Department of Commerce in Jiangsu Province.

The City of Portland was represented by Hector Miramontes, International Relations Director and Chido Dhliwayo, International Relations Associate from the Mayor’s Office. Sunun Setboonsarng, Global Trade Specialist and Colin Sears, Business Recruitment Officer represented Business Oregon. Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association was represented by Lynne McIntyre, President, and Robert Fraser Vice President.

Bureau and Section Chiefs represented a number of cities, districts and industrial zones from Jiangsu Province including Suzhou and: Nanjing, Wuxi Xinwu, Liyuan, Jiangyin, Yizeng, Donghai and Suqian. Company executives represented Jiangsu Holly Corporation, Jiangsu Hiteker High Tech Co., Ltd., Suzhou Dongde Intelligent Electric Automobile S&T and Innovation Park, Lianyungang Jingdu Group, Nanjing Mecom Company and Jiangsu HJH Science and Technology Co. Ltd. Lynne McIntyre commented after the visit “This was a wonderful delegation representing different economic, business and government interests. We were very pleased that there were representatives from Suzhou among their number.

The Business Oregon presentation caught the interest of several delegates, particularly those factors that set Oregon and Portland apart from the communities the delegation visited in the Los Angeles area. They seemed incredulous that Oregon does not have a sales tax and expressed great interest in our tax incentives. A number of business and educational opportunities were explored for future pursuit and follow up”.

2017 Suzhou Cultural Delegation Visit

The Mayor’s Office, represented by Hector Miramontes, Director of Foreign Relations, and the Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association, represented by President Lynne McIntyre, welcomed the Suzhou Cultural Bureau led by Mr. Jie Li, Director General of the Suzhou Cultural Bureau. Also accompanying the Suzhou delegation was Mr. Shi Hai Chen, Director of the Zhangjiagang Municipal Bureau of Culture and their Assistant Ms. Jincy Chen.

The purpose of the meeting was to restate the commitment of Portland and Suzhou to the enduring friendship between the two cities and to discuss the opportunities provided by the 2018 PSSCA 30th Anniversary Celebrations, and to build upon the two sister city’s cooperation of cultural  exchanges.

After discussing a number of exciting opportunities at this meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed. The ultimate goal, as stated by Mr. Jie Li is to achieve a cultural project that will have an enduring affect for generations to come. Also attending the meeting were Robert Fraser, PSSCA VP; Lisa James, Executive Director of the Lan Su Chinese Garden; Jean Li and Frances Li, PSSCA Board Members,  Cathy Chinn, PSSCA Past President; and Helena Gao, Editor of China Media.