Sister city relationships allow citizens of both communities to become involved in international relations on a more personal level. The community, government and business ties created in a sister city partnership facilitate the exchange of ideas, cultural understanding and awareness of a global community. Although the sister city relationship works on many levels, it begins with one initiative. In the case of the connection between Changsha in the Hunan province in China and St. Paul, it was a begun by a visit to St. Paul by Changsha officials in 1987. The connection was enforced the following year when St. Paul mayor George Latimer led a delegation to Changsha and Changsha mayor Wang Keying led a delegation to St. Paul.

While the connections between Changsha and St. Paul are created and maintained through the interactions among the members of their communities, there are similarities and parallels in certain aspects of their histories that add another dimension to the connection between the two cities. Before modern modes of transportation, rivers were vital trade routes and necessary to fuel agriculture and support growing communities. Thus it is no surprise that both St. Paul and Changsha grew up around rivers (the Mississippi and Xiangjiang Rivers respectively).

St. Paul and Changsha both have a rich history before the unification of their countries. In Changsha, the excavation of Mawangdui, three 2,100-year-old tombs from the Western Han Dynasty, gave clues to ancient Hunan culture. Pottery, a make-up box containing a comb, a mirror, powder and lipstick, musical instruments and cooking recipes written on bamboo strips that were excavated from the site are on display in the provincial museum. In St. Paul’s Indian Mounds Park, burial mounds of Native American groups gave insight to the culture of the area before settlement by whites. Discoveries in the mounds included human bones, shards of pottery, mussel shells and arrowheads. Unfortunately, due to the rough excavation and the demand for land for construction of roads and houses, only a handful of mounds remain.

Changsha is the capital of Hunan province and is best known for its most famous resident, Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China. Chairman Mao was born in a mud-brick farm house in Shaoshan on December 26, 1893. He lived, studied and worked in Changsha until 1921. It was in the Water-Dropping Cave that Mao hid for 11 days while he planned the Cultural Revolution.

Like Changsha, St. Paul is the capital city and also has connections to important national historical figures. Zachary Taylor was a military commander at Fort Snelling from 1828-1829, after which he became President of the United States. But perhaps the most significant historical figure connected to St. Paul was Dred Scott. Scott was a slave brought to Fort Snelling by Dr. John Emerson from Missouri in 1836. Once they returned to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom based on the fact that he had lived in a free state. The Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott was not a citizen and therefore he could not sue for his freedom. In effect it ruled that despite the laws prohibiting slavery in the northern states and territories, ownership of slaves, or classification as a slave, was not affected by moving across the boundaries and therefore slavery was legal in the entire country, not just the south. This court decision was an important factor leading to the Civil War.

In Changsha and St. Paul, many of the attractions are places significant to their unique histories. Changsha’s Yueyang Tower is one of the most famous structures in China, renowned for its ancient literary associations. At the height of China’s literary glory during the Tang Dynasty, the tower was a meeting place for famous poets including Li Bai, Du Fu, and Bai Juyu. The tower is three stories and 20m (66 ft.) high, constructed without cross-beams or nails. It includes four main halls and 24 outer and 12 inner rooms. Three upward-curving roofs covered with glazed yellow tiles are supported by huge red pillars. The top of the Tower offers broad vistas of Lake Dongting. Originally built in 716, the present tower was rebuilt in 1045 on another site, and restored in the early Qing and again as recently as 1983.

While not nearly as ancient as important landmarks in Changsha such as Mawangdui and Yueyang Tower, major landmarks in St. Paul likewise serve to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the area. Fort Snelling is located at the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers and for a time during the first half of the nineteenth century, was the northwestern-most military outpost. Home to Minnesota’s oldest buildings (the Round Tower and the Hexagonal Tower), Fort Snelling extended the reach of American authority by blocking the British use of key waterways after the War of 1812 and paved the way for white settlers. It was the site of many "firsts" in Minnesota including the first hospital, the first school and the first circulating library.

Another St. Paul attraction that is part of Minnesota history is the Landmark Center which was formerly a federal courts building then a post office, and now serves as a cultural center for music, dance, public forums, and other community events. Similarly, the James J. Hill House preserves, in a tangible way, the contributions and influence of railroad baron James J. Hill on the community.

A final parallel between Changsha and St. Paul is in the inventions that have come from the areas that have had a significant impact on a broader community. St. Paul was where the Better Business Bureau was formed in 1911 to fight against deceptive advertising and where University of Minnesota scientists built the world’s first heart lung machine in 1955. Yuan Longping, the inventor of hybrid rice based his experiments in paddies around Changsha. His research led to a twenty percent increase in rice production and currently half of China’s rice fields are growing the hybrid.

The sister city relationship between Changsha and St. Paul gives us an opportunity to examine our place in the global community. By working together on many different levels, we can build ties by finding our similarities and embracing our differences. We can create a culture of mutual respect and understanding.

Editor’s note: This article was originally printed in the July 2003 issue of China Insight.