[Photo/Agencies]

It was an occasion to celebrate the personal experiences of the sister-city relationships over the years.

Alix Nathan, president of the Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association in Oregon, said at the sixth U.S.-China Sister Cities Summit on Friday in Tacoma, Washington state, that one of the most crucial aspects of the exchanges and relationship with sister city Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province, is in education.

"For more than 20 years, Portland has been using and working with schools in the U.S. and Suzhou to facilitate reciprocal school-to-school bilateral group programing for students," Nathan told China Daily.

His association has assisted in the effort by spending a minimum of one week visiting each other's classrooms, city attractions, parks and museums, as well as spending time with host families.

"Obviously, during the pandemic, many of these programs were shut down," he said. "However, now we're very excited to rekindle this relationship, as we have many schools restarting their activities to promote American students from Portland going to China, with more than 12 schools now enlisted in activities to foster exchanges in the coming year."

During the summit, a delegation of 13 students from the Affiliated High School of Fuzhou Institute of Education in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, arrived in Tacoma for an 11-day educational exchange program.

"Besides the beautiful country and the delicious food we had, making friends and talking to people was the best part," Izabell Saldana, a 12th grader at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, said of her multicity trip to China last month. "I do believe that this is absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Celeste Nunez Salcido, director of international business resources for the New Mexico Trade Alliance, was the U.S. fellow during the 2023 Gansu International Fellowship Program organized by the Gansu provincial government.

The fellowship convenes professional candidates from around the world to learn about Gansu's and China's economic development efforts, cultural heritage, language and history to promote mutual understanding and peaceful cooperation.

Salcido's participation in the program marked the first exchange opportunity between Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lanzhou, Gansu province, since the pandemic.

"Here, every one of you is a citizen diplomat," she said in her speech at the end of the summit. "Every one of you has the ability and power to strengthen these friendships that lead to cooperation."

She said cooperation is important for the shared challenges of the future.

"The U.S. and China are the top two global economies. This is not going to change in the near future. And that means that we need people to understand each other," she said.

Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, told China Daily it will launch a youth exchange program next year, inviting and organizing trips for 1,000 U.S. high school and university students aged 16 to 22 to China.

"Through a seven-to-10-day visit, students will experience a real, multidimensional and comprehensive China. They will become young ambassadors for promoting Sino-American relations," Yang said.