Worlds Apart, Newtown And Liaocheng Find Commonality

By John Voket

This is the second part of a two-part story on First Selectman Pat Llodra and Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker’s recent trip to China.

What could Newtown, a suburban bedroom community of about 30,000, possibly have in common with Liaocheng, China, a teeming industrial city of 5.5 million on the opposite side of the globe? Surprisingly, First Selectman Pat Llodra and Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker learned the similarities are many.

The pair of town officials traveled to China’s “Water City” in the Shandong Province in late April, paying their own way to fill two otherwise empty seats on a sister city trip with local students and school district representatives. And while Mrs Llodra and Ms Stocker spent some of their time in China accompanying the school group to major tourist attractions in and around Beijing, they spent most of the rest of the junket in Liaocheng meeting with city and government officials.

Mrs Llodra said she and Ms Stocker made the trip in an attempt to promote possible partnerships between companies in the Chinese city and some of Newtown’s commercial enterprises, such as Tier One, Curtis Packaging, and Advanced Fusion Systems.

“We had four-and-a-half days, so I asked that we fill that time touring major manufacturing centers to learn more about Liaocheng’s economy and city planning,” Mrs Llodra said upon her return. “I wanted to gain a broader knowledge of this massive city of almost six million.”

The first selectman came away from the experience with the knowledge that Newtown shares many challenges with Liaocheng, although it is on a micro versus macro level.

“I think there was a great personal benefit to have many long conversations with government and political leaders,” Mrs Llodra said. And much like in the United States, many of those conversations occurred over the dinner table.

“Given my status as a visiting dignitary, we followed the traditional protocol of seating for meals, which meant I was always at the number one guest position beside the mayor or highest level dignitary, and Liz was in the number two position beside their economic and development representative.”

Unique Cuisine

Many of those meals were rather unique according to the first selectman.

“Sure, I ate everything that the host was serving — duck feet, beak and brain, donkey, cicada,” Mrs Llodra said.

The biggest “treat,” however, came during the farewell dinner where the hosts were proud to present a formerly protected type of fish that had recently been reclassified as accessible for eating.

“Apparently its spinal cord is considered a delicacy,” Mrs Llodra said. “Whether it was meat or vegetables, no part of any product goes unused. It reminded me of when I was growing up on a farm, except that some of these dishes were treated as highly symbolic — where the host is honoring their guest by including specific dishes on the menu.”

Despite the excitement of new culinary adventures, the focus never strayed far from the local officials’ goal of trying to create some economic or commercial connections between Newtown and Liaocheng, Ms Stocker said.

“There was much discussion about what we are trying to do here,” Ms Stocker said, adding that she and her Chinese counterpart, Lu Yazhen, saw the potential for economic and development ties.

“We agreed that it would be good to pursue the possibilities further. My main interest is to match Newtown companies with companies in China — providing products we could make here and ship there,” Ms Stocker said. “There was sincerity in their interest, which was clearly shown by all of the top ranking decisionmakers’ staffers who accompanied us during much of the visit. They were very attentive and very receptive when we talked about what was happening in Newtown.”

Shared Challenges

Ms Stocker said she and the Chinese officials — through interpreters — had plenty of time to discuss the social and development challenges shared by both communities.

“You’d be surprised how many similarities we shared that transcended the size difference between our two communities,” she said. “Their infrastructure impressed us. Liaocheng has made huge investments in roads, sewers, water, and energy systems. But we were able to share how Newtown is trying to grow and attract commercial investments.”

Ms Stocker also impressed upon the Chinese delegation how Newtown is working to balance its growth and development initiatives while maintaining the necessary protections against the environmental impact of rapid commercial expansion.

“We shared a common bond over our desires to conserve and protect our communities’ natural resources,” she said. “They showed great appreciation for the environmental controls we maintain here. But you also have to remember that they are redeveloping while we are in that first phase of developing.”

Part of that massive urban redevelopment planning involved relocating vast tracts of Liaocheng residents from areas of homes that were slated for demolition to make room for new industrial facilities — and how those plans had to be balanced with the development of replacement housing.

“Obviously they have made great investments in creating visual impact in the projects they are developing. There were a lot of ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ as we were driving around from site to site,” Ms Stocker said. “But I learned a lot from watching how they balanced creating high impact streetscapes, particularly in areas where they also had to be conscious of historic preservation.”