Sonoma Sister Cities delegation gets a taste of Penglai wine industry

For eight Sonoma residents, last month provided an unusual opportunity to meet officials, schoolchildren and winemakers in our sister city of Penglai, China.

“It was great,” summarized Sonoma City Councilmember Gary Edwards of the six-and-a-half days he spent in China. “There’s a real thirst for what we have here in Sonoma, and the more we can talk about Sonoma in China the better.”

That “thirst” includes wine – Penglai is in the heart of China’s primary wine-growing region in Shandong province, and the reason for the Sister City relationship is based on the common interest in wine cultivation, according to Sherri Ferris, another member of the delegation.

Penglai made the overture to Sonoma in 2011 to connect through the international program, and they have sent their own delegations to town several times. “We asked them why they chose Sonoma as a sister city,” said Ferris. “They said, ‘Because Napa is for auto parts.’”

Hoary jokes aside, the Chinese hosts in Penglai were gracious and informative, and enjoyed showing off not only the agricultural side of their city of 600,000 but its historical side as well. Penglai has long been a popular destination inside China; its history includes being the port city from which China’s “eight immortals” sailed to the east in search of the islands of immortality, in the third century B.C.E.

That the Sonoma delegation was also composed of eight people – Gary and Ruth Edwards, Ferris, plus Hans Streuck, Keyvan Tabari and Patricia Carter of Sonoma Sister Cities Association, and community leaders Wayne and Cecelia Schake – was not lost on the party, who jokingly referred to themselves as “the eight immortals” during their travels.

The trip began in Beijing, where the group found themselves visiting the U.S. Embassy just as China’s president Xi Jinping was meeting with Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. “There was a lot of buzz around the embassy about that,” said Edwards.

The party also visited the Great Wall, and by a stroke of luck Jinping had apparently asked that all the area’s factories be shut down for military exercises. As a result, the views were spectacular. “I’ve been to the Wall before when you couldn’t see the Wall,” said Ferris, a protocol diplomat for 25 years who has been to China several times.

From there the group took the high-speed train to Shandong Province, and spent three full days in the Penglai region visiting the area’s highlights – including several wineries. Edwards remarked on the similarities between Sonoma and Penglai, not only in agriculture – they grow apples as well as wine grapes – but even in the landscape and climate. Both cities hover near the 38th parallel, as does Italy’s wine-growing region.

However Edwards seemed most impressed by the schoolchildren. The delgation made a special stop at the primary school that is participating in the “pen-pal” correspondence between Penglai children and their corresponding age-mates in Sonoma.

“The kids were especially terrific,” Edwards said. “We visited a primary school, middle school and university. They even have a wine-making course in the middle school, sponsored by some of the wine companies over there, because it’s such a big part of their area.”

When asked if it were legal for middle-school children to sample their wine-making results, Edwards noted succinctly that, “They have pretty good discipline in schools, too.”

The group was escorted around Penglai by Jenny Chi Qing, the city’s Bureau of Commerce representative who has herself come to Sonoma twice in the past on their delegation exchange. They also met with Sun Yebao, the city’s mayor, among other officials.

Naturally China’s wine, its quality and production, drew keen attention from the eight self-described “wine aficionados’ representing” Sonoma. “We had some excellent wine in Penglai, the kind of wine that Californians would really enjoy,” said Ferris.

“Their wine industry is only a few years old,” said Edwards, “with a lot of promise in the flavors that we tasted.” Penglai’s two major industries are tourism and winemaking, another inescapable similarity to the Sonoma Valley.

The councilman and his wife Ruth, a Bank of Marin manager for the Wine Services Group, were late additions to the delegation; Mayor David Cook had planned to go, but this year’s early grape harvest kept the vineyard manager home for the month of September. On the official roster that Sonoma Sister Cities sent to Penglai’s corresponding organization, Edwards was listed as “Mayor-at-Large” – a ceremonial and unofficial title that nonetheless had its desired effect.

“I’m sure one of the reason they were so gracious to us is because we had an official on board, because that’s the way their government works,” said Ferris. “Gary was incredibly gracious and wonderful delegation leader for us.”

But the Edwards’ left their two young children behind, and had to scramble to find a nanny and baby sitters for the two pre-schoolers. And while the “official delegation” took the eight through the return flight to Beijing, the Edwards’ returned to the U.S. from there, while the rest of the delegation went on to Yinchuan for other adventures.

“We wanted to get back and be with our kids,” said Edwards. “But we want to go back – and take them with us next time.”

Edwards, Ferris and the other Sonoma Sister Cities delegation agreed that the most important part of the trip was the people-to-people contact, even if most of the people they interfaced with were government or business officials of one level or another.

“Whether we’re dealing with a sister city, another state or our next door neighbors,” said Edwards, “it’s people-to-people that matters most.”