Ｈａｗａｉｉａｎ Ｇｏｖｅｒｎｏｒ Ｌｉｎｄａ Ｌｉｎｇｌｅ ａｎｄ Ｈｅｒ Ｐａｒｔｙ Ｖｉｓｉｔ Ｇｕａｎｇｄｏｎｇ

This year sees the 20th anniversary of the establishment of friendship-Province/state relations between Guangdong and Hawaii of the United States. At the invitation of Huang Huahua， governor of Guangdong， Linda Lingle， governor of Hawaii， visited Guangdong from June 14 to 16 at the head of a delegation consisting of personages of the political， educational， cultural and art circles and overseas Chinese， and participated in the activities in celebration of the twinning anniversary.

There is a long history of contacts between Hawaii and Guangdong. As early as over 100 years ago， the first batch of Chinese landed on Hawaii was from Zhongshan City of Guangdong. It was here that Dr. Sun Yat-sen studied in his early years and later carried out revolutionary activities. The Chinese descendants in Hawaii still feel proud of it. Governor Lingle specially requested to visit the former residence of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in Zhongshan during her stay in Guangdong， and joined the delegation of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce from Hawaii that had specially come to visit Zhongshan， where she saw the influence of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and experienced the warm hospitality of the city government and its people. The Governor led the presidents of the University of Hawaii to visit Sun Yat-sen University and delivered a speech to more than 200 teachers and students. The Governor also had a discussion with women representatives of Guangdong. The two sides frankly exchanged experience of participation in the government and political affairs and explored some women issues.

The Department of Business， Economic Development and Tourism of Hawaii held a symposium on tourism in Sun Yat-sen University. Dr. Tung X. Bui， professor of the University of Hawaii， gave a lecture on crisis management at Guangdong Administrative Staff College.

The cultural evening show entitled “Dynamic Guangdong—Romantic Hawaii”， cosponsored by the governments of Guangdong Province and the State of Hawaii to mark the 20th anniversary of the twinning of friendship ties， was held in Sun Yat-sen’s Memorial Hall on June 15. Before the show Governor Huang Huahua and Governor Lingle made warm speeches， in which they spoke highly of the results born of the friendly and cooperative ties between Guangdong and Hawaii. The present and former leaders of Guangdong Province and the delegation of Hawaii， among about 3，000 personages of various circles， attended the evening show. The musicians from Hawaii introduced Hawaiian tradition and culture to the audience through their music. The Guangdong dancers performed dances with distinctive local features. Finally， the musicians and dancers joined and performed the Hawaiian Hula Dance together.

It was Governor Lingle’s first visit to China. She said time and again， seeing is believing. The visit has changed her views about China and her understanding of the Chinese people， especially the Chinese officials and women. She has seen during the visit a prosperous and vigorously developing China and a frank， sincere and confident people， not the stagnant China she had imagined and the people wearing the same clothes and having no individualities as she had been told. All this left her deep impressions. Governor Lingle especially admired the confidence and grace demonstrated by the women representatives of Guangdong and invited them to attend the World Conference on Women that will be held in Hawaii in September this year.