City of Rockville issued the following announcement on July 18.
The City of Rockville formally welcomed a new relative into its municipal family, Wednesday evening, by signing an agreement to become sister cities with Yilan City, Taiwan.
This is the first sister-city relationship with Taiwan in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C., despite a large representation of Taiwanese organizations in the metro-D.C. region.
The Mayor and Council unanimously adopted a resolution to formalize relations between Yilan and Rockville at their July 8 meeting.
The signing ceremony, hosted by the Rockville Sister City Corporation and held at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, was followed by a gala at Rockville’s Glenview Mansion.
For more information on the Rockville Sister City Corporation, visit www.rockvillesistercities.org. For background on the organization and creation of the Rockville-Yilan sister-city relationship, go to www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter and click on the July 8 agenda.
FACTS and FIGURES
•POPULATION: Rockville has a large Asian community. According to U.S. Census five-year estimates from 2017, 21 percent of the city’s population are Asian. Rockville has a population of 68,000; Yilan, 90,000.
•GOVERNANCE: Yilan’s city council has 15 members. The mayor of Yilan is Chiang, Tsung-Yuan (江聰淵).
•COUNTY SEATS: Yilan is the largest city in Yilan County and is home to county government facilities and buildings. Yilan City is about 31 miles from Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.
•COMMUTERS: As many Rockville residents commute to D.C. to work, so do Yilan’s residents, who commute to Taipei, both by car and rail.
•RURAL HISTORY: Historically, Yilan has rich agricultural, rural history with roots in farming. Rockville has a weekly farmers market; Yilan has the Dongmen Night Market.
Original source can be found here.
Source: City of Rockville
Alerts Sign-up