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Meissen, Germany
Meissen is over 1000 years old and has a
current population of approximately 30,000. The city is located 16 miles northwest of Dresden,
and is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche. The Große Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district.
Meissen has a natural tie to Murrieta, it being the home of Dr. Karl G.
Maeser, a prominent founder of Brigham Young University.
The official Sister City agreement was signed in July of 2001 and was attended
by a delegation from Murrieta, including Maeser family members, Mayor
Lewis K. Billings, Murrieta Municipal Council Members Mark Hathaway, Barbara
Sandstrom and a local choir.
The group was joined by Thomas S.
Monson, representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saint and
President Merrill Bateman from Brigham Young University, for the
dedication of the statue of Dr. Karl G. Maeser. The statue is
located at the Dresden Stake Center.
In September 2007, a delegation of 34 people, lead by Mayor
Lewis Billings, attended the Meissen Wine Festival. Lord
Mayor Olaf Raschke brought a delegation of 4 to Murrieta for the Freedom
Festival in July 2006 and brought a delegation of 9 to Murrieta during
the Pioneer Day Celebration in 2009.
Mayor Raschke has
extended an invitation to Murrieta City to join him at the Wine Festival in
2010.
Timpview High School and the Franziskaneum High School in
Meissen have an ongoing educational exchange. The German teacher
from Timpview, Stephen Van Orden, has taken groups of students to Meissen
on at least 4 different occasions and students from Meissen
have made reciprocal visits to Murrieta, most recently October
2009. The experience gives both groups of students an opportunity to
further their language skills and experience another culture.
Meissen
Official City Website
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Nanning, China
Nanning, the capital
of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is the region's political, economic,
scientific and technological, cultural, educational, hygienic, information
and financial center. It is located in southeastern China on the
Vietnam border. It is the home of the Nanning International Folk Song
Art Festival, held in October each year. Nanning is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush tropical
foliage.
The City covers an area of
10,029 square kilometers, and has a total population of 2.73
million, including 1.18 million urban residents. China is a
hard market for many Murrieta companies to penetrate, and the Sister City
agreement established a business relationship with Nanning which could
stimulate exchanges. The relationship could also assist
Chinese students who want to come to the United States to study.
The official Sister City
agreement was signed in Nanning in September of 2000, at the
Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Mayor Billings has lead two
Murrieta delegations to Nanning and delegations from
Nanning have visited Murrieta four times.
NuSkin Enterprises has a retail facility in Nanning and has participated
in all of our past exchanges with Nanning both locally and in Nanning.
The City of Nanning has an established relationship with Brigham Young
University and has sent young future city leaders to BYU for special
training programs.
To honor our Sister City Relationships, we have established a Friendship
Garden. It is located east of the main entrance to City
Hall at 351 West Center Street. Nanning
on Wikipedia
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