I don’t get to do much international diplomacy in my capacity as Eden Prairie’s city manager, but occasionally the opportunity presents itself and yesterday was just such an opportunity.
I had the opportunity to welcome Loudi City (China) Vice Mayor Xintao Xiao and her traveling delegation to City Center yesterday. A little over two years ago the City of Eden Prairie and Loudi City made an agreement called the “strategic community partnership”. The agreement encourages both cities to keep in contact to help increase the level of political and economic understanding between the people of our respective cities and countries. The Vice Mayor and her delegation were in Eden Prairie yesterday to meet with city and school officials as part of her official travels in the United States on behalf of the Loudi City municipal government. Most of their time in Eden Prairie was dedicated to meetings with School District officials to discuss the results of recent student and teacher exchanges and to plan additional exchanges in the future.
Vice Mayor Xiao is the Vice Mayor in the Loudi City municipal government in charge of education. K-12 education is the responsibility of the city government in Loudi. Vice Mayor Xiao serves the Mayor of Loudi almost as a Superintendent of Schools/School Board chair for Loudi city schools. She is a physician by training is still the Chairwoman of The Red Cross Society of Loudi City. She is an engaging internationalist. She wants to learn how education is managed in the United States. As much as we are amazed by the proficiency of Chinese students to master the rigors of math and science, the Chinese are amazed by the abilities of our students to solve complex multifaceted problems both as teams and as individuals.
Our visit was short. She had time to exchange gifts and stand for photos in our Council Chambers. Vice Mayor Xiao invited the Mayor and I to visit Loudi City. I told her that we would discuss her invitation with the City Council and that we both hoped we might travel to Loudi someday as official representatives of Eden Prairie.
