Thea Foss Waterway--The
Tacoma Dome is located right
in front of this waterway. On
the left-hand side, Mt. Rainier
can be seen, standing at
4,392 meters.

Cable car passing through
downtown Tacoma.

Bob's Java Jive

Tacoma Dome is the world's
largest dome-shaped sports
stadium and a city landmark.

Thea Foss Waterway and
waterfront residential area.

Museum of Glass

Downtown Tacoma

Thea Foss Waterway night
view

'Taichung Nights' in Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A.

Words and photos by
Weng Li-huang
Translated by Ann Lee

Mount Rainier (4,392 m), Washington state's highest peak, and the Puget Sound, a complex of inland marine waterways encompassing Tacoma city, are both located in the western part of the state. Tacoma is located just 50 kilometers south of Seattle and has a total land area of 125 square kilometers and a population of 200,000 people. It is also the third-largest city in Washington state, after Seattle and Spokane.

Tacoma city is surrounded by beautiful landscapes and occupies a key geographical location on the Pacific Northwest coast. It is also known as an industrial city and transportation and commercial hub. Interstate highways and railroads transporting passengers and cargo across different states, as well as an international airport, are all located within Tacoma, making it a really convenient destination and jumping-off spot for travelers. Tacoma's excellent harbor and busy port are among the most important on the west coast, as Tacoma Port is the fifth-largest container port in North America. Taiwan is considered one of four Tacoma's key trade partners, and the Evergreen Marine Corporation and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation are both key port clients, each operating an individually owned cargo container terminal. The lumber and shipping industries, as well as wholesale and retail trade, are also vital to the city's economy.

The city of Tacoma was founded in 1884 and, in its earlier days, railroads, shipping and mining (aluminum and copper-smelting), as well as lumber were the main industries here. However, in the post-20th century era, the city has gone through a renaissance, investing in its downtown core to develop a combination of high-tech, financial, retail, medical, customer service, engineering and cultural businesses, investments and institutions. Since the 1980s, Tacoma's government structure has focused on city renewal via new construction and architecture, the promotion of the city as a vibrant metropolis with a multi-faceted economy, care for local environmental preservation issues, efforts to maintain historical sites, elevation of the city's cultural aspects, and overal community development. There are a total of eight colleges and institutions of higher education in downtown Tacoma. Some of the city's best-known cultural/leisure-type attractions and facilities include the Washington State History Museum, Tacoma Museum of Glass, Tacoma Art Museum, Chihuly Bridge of Glass, Tacoma Dome and Pt. Defiance Park.

The organizational structure of the Tacoma City Government is a Council-Manager format (a.k.a. a board of directors system). Meeting in the City Council Chambers, the City Council (a.k.a. the board of directors) is the representative body where laws are made and the City Manager (equal in rank to the General Manager) is employed by the City Council to represent the entire city government staff and execute policies appointed by the City Council, under the supervision of the City Council. There are a total of nine positions at the City Council, consisting of eight council members and one mayor. The Mayor also serves in the role as lead councilor (or Board Director). He/she is voted into the position by the citizens of Tacoma for a four-year term and, if re-elected, can continue serving as mayor for another four years. The City Manager of Tacoma has no time limitation on the number of years in service in the City Council, and his term of office is also not affected by the Mayor nor by other council members (unless he is proven to be unfit for the position, or for other political reasons).

The Mayor and the entire City Council both act as councilors for the city, and don't execute or make actual politically-related decisions. Therefore, they don't have solid decision-making authority, but do have the right to express opinions and play a certain part in influencing the outcomes of decisions being made within the council chambers. They have the right to give opinions in areas such as ethics, guiding principles, policy assessment and budget evaluation, and also play a supervisory role.

Tacoma City and Taichung officially became sister cities on July 19, 2000. The Current Mayor of Tacoma City Bill Baarsma visited Taichung back in March, 2002. On that occasion, Mayor Baarsma toured many of Taichung's city government buildings and cultural-related attractions, and tasted an array of authentic local cuisine. He also participated in Tunghai University seminar as guest speaker and noted that he left with great impressions of our beautiful city. Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu also visited Tacoma in 2004, when he arranged a special meeting with Mayor Baarsma to discuss several exchange and coordination projects.

The city of Tacoma has a total of 11 sister cities. Apart from Taichung, the 10 others include: Kokura (Japan), Kunsan (South Korea), Fuzhou (China), Vladivostok (Russia), Davao City (Philippines), Kiryat-Motzkin (Israel), Aelesund (Norway), George (South Africa), Cienfuegos (Cuba) and El Jadida (Morocco). A committee is assigned to each sister city, with members made up of volunteers and social workers from each city who are responsible for gathering resources and money and hosting events on their own with assistance and supervision from their respective city governments. All sister city committees have hosted a Seattle International Film Festival since 2003, with each committee responsible for hosting an evening event and highlighting a film from their country. At these events, participants also get to enjoy some traditional gourmet cuisine and appreciate cultural-related exhibitions and performances. The objective is to promote film as a medium that fosters cross-cultural communication and education, and international understanding. Taichung's sister city committee has also done its part in this regard by hosting "Taichung Nights" every year, showing Taiwanese films and introducing Taiwanese culture to the rest of the world.

Taichung City Government has always been very supportive of Tacoma-Taichung sister-city events. Apart from assistance to create "Taichung Nights" promotions every year, the government also appointed Department of Economic Development head Chiang to travel to Tacoma for six months in 2002 to do the in-depth research into that city's economy. In 2003, that department's Bureau Chief Liao was also appointed to attend the Tacoma Commercial Exhibition, while in 2005 15 Taiwanese high school students were selected to attend English courses at Tacoma Community College. Two young musicians were chosen to attend the Tacoma Sister-City International Classical Music Festival (2006) and there was an Chinese/English book exchange between Tacoma and Taichung city libraries in the same year. In addition, the University of Puget Sound and Tunghai University also agreed to work together to design a Chinese-teaching curriculum in their schools, so that Puget Sound students can travel to Taichung every summer to study Chinese.

With this sister-city program, Tacoma city anticipates even more cooperative projects with Taichung, in hopes of strengthening culture, education, arts, technology, information and economic exchanges. One other objective of this sister-city program is allow both cities greater opportunities for promoting trade, strengthening development between communities, broadening prospects for their local citizens, and boosting tolerance for different cultures. Tacoma's development goal is to become a truly livable, diverse, progressive, beautiful and international city.

(This article was written by Weng Lee-huang, a Taichung-Tacoma Sister-City Committee member, now working for the Tacoma City Government Community, and Department of Economic Development.)

Left: Union Station is a historical landmark in Tacoma city, and now houses the Federal Courthouse and the Washington State History Museum.
Right: A firefighting team at work in Tacoma city.

Left: Street scene on Halloween day.
Right: Tacoma Narrows Bridges