City ties

Another way that Seattle has sought to bolster intercity ties is through the sister city concept that evolved in the US through president Dwight Eisenhower's "People-to-People" program, established in 1956 to lessen the chance of war by involving people from all walks of life in personal diplomacy.

Having met Deng and toured China himself in 1979, Royer sent a delegation to Chongqing, in southwestern China, in 1982 to draft an agreement. On June 3, 1983, he sealed the deal in Seattle with then Chongqing mayor Yu Hanqing, starting a series of exchange programs and a relationship now in its 35th year.

Educational exchanges have played a key role, with the University of Washington and Sichuan University initiating their first exchange program in medicine in 1984. More recent collaborations between the two universities include the opening of the Confucius Institute of Washington State in 2010.

Royer eventually returned to China, spending most of his time in Chongqing.

He laughed when he talked about how a baby panda started to nibble on his shoes when he stepped into a panda cage at the zoo during his 1989 trip to the city. He said the city is a lot like Seattle, with a beautiful environment and great food.

The largest sister city project with Chongqing is the Seattle Chinese Garden. With an estimated cost of $40 million, the 2-hectare garden in West Seattle is a joint public/private project, with funds raised in both cities.

"We want the Chinese garden to be a conference center more than a garden, hopefully an education place and a place for people to get together and talk about important issues like the recent tariff thing," Royer said.