Mayor Hodges leading delegation to sister city in China

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and a handful of other local delegates will spend the first few days of 2015 in a frozen city in northeast China, swapping strategies with leaders of other cold-weather cities on attracting business and tourism in the winter.

The visit to the city of Harbin is Hodges' first to any of Minneapolis' 12 sister cities around the world. Minneapolis has had a relationship with the Chinese city of 10 million residents since 1992, and previously sent delegations that included former mayors and other officials.

The delegation for the three-day January visit includes Council Member John Quincy, two representatives from Meet Minneapolis — CEO Melvin Tennant and Bill Deef, vice president for international relations — along with Ralph Beha, a board member of the Minnesota chapter of the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association and John Munger, executive director of the Loppet Foundation, a group focused on outdoor activities.

The group's visit coincides with Harbin's annual Ice Festival, which features a winter carnival, sports and an ice and snow sculpture competition. The event also includes a conference of leaders from cities that share Minneapolis' frosty climate. Participants are expected to travel from Russia, Japan, Finland, Denmark and Canada.

Harbin, near the Siberian border, is accustomed to brutal temperatures; Thursday's forecast called for temperatures ranging from -23 to -2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Deef said Meet Minneapolis, the marketing arm of the Convention Center, is interested in strategies to get more hotel rooms booked and more tourism business in the first three months of the year, which has traditionally been a difficult sell. He said his organization is interested in bringing some of Harbin's artists to Minneapolis and developing an equally popular winter event.

"If we can learn something about what they're doing over there and how they can produce these giant snow sculptures, perhaps we can replicate that here in downtown and do some amazing things as well," he said.

Beha said his group often hosts visiting Chinese academic or political delegations and has had a hand in small but meaningful exchanges, such as organizing for a local brass band to perform at an event in Harbin.

"It builds these bridges, one personal relationship at a time," Beha said of visiting sister cities. "So that's what's attractive; it's not just a place to go swap business cards and go drum up something."

Meet Minneapolis is purchasing the delegation's plane tickets, with each member reimbursing the organization. The mayor will make the reimbursement out of her office's travel fund. Other costs will be covered by the Harbin municipal government.

The last Minneapolis mayoral visit to Harbin was by former Mayor R.T. Rybak, who also made trips to sister cities in Japan, France and Sweden.

Hodges said she'd brought up a visit to China months ago, when she had a meeting with the Dalai Lama and asked him what the mayor of an American city could do to improve relations with China. He said she should visit, and she said she would.

"I'm eager to (visit) for a host of reasons: to build the business relationships, and I'm looking to celebrate winter more here," she said.

But she joked that the promise to the Buddhist leader carried some weight, too, adding: "I also realize the karmic load of telling the Dalai Lama you would go and then not accepting the invitation."