"Congratulations! Happy Independence Day!"

No, it's not the Fourth of July. It's San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on Wednesday morning toasting government officers and Chinese community leaders who came for the annual Chinese national flag-raising ceremony at City Hall to celebrate the coming Chinese National Day.

"We want to show our appreciation for the Independence Day of China that is coming up on Oct 1," the Chinese-American mayor told the group assembled on the balcony of city hall. "This is to recognize an important relationship - the Chinese-US relationship, surely one of the most important relationships in the whole world."

One of the reasons for that, he added, was because "we have such a great consul general in San Francisco".

Yuan Nansheng, the Consul General of China in San Francisco, attended the ceremony and expressed his gratitude to Lee, who will lead a business delegation on a second tour of China in October.

"I am very excited about this second trip to China," Lee said. "It's a very good cause and we have a lot to do.

"There are so many people doing business with each other in China and US, we want to continue those relationships," he said, adding that they also wanted to continue talking about art, cultural and entertainment exchanges between both sides as well.

He noted that the Golden Gate Warriors - San Francisco's NBA team - will bring two games to Chinese basketball fans - one in Beijing and one in Shanghai - on Oct 15 and Oct 18 respectively.

We know the Chinese love sports, after the country hosted a very successful Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, he said.

"The Chinese are very excited about basketball. It is a very good meeting ground of a lot of people, government officials and sports enthusiasts," he said.

The business delegation will arrive at China on Oct 14 and stay until Oct 20, including two days in Beijing and four in Shanghai.

"We lost a lot of ground in working with China and so many other international markets as the previous administrations did not pay attention to international trade," he said.

"This is the most important thing we are doing," Lee said. "It's not only important for San Francisco but for the whole United States."

As a representative of the San Francisco mayor's office in China, ChinaSF is helping coordinate the mayor's upcoming trip.

Darlene Chiu Bryant, executive director of ChinaSF, told China Daily on Wednesday that many senior officials' meeting itineraries are still being arranged, but talks between the Ministry of Commerce and Lee in Beijing are certain.

"On the Shanghai stop, we want to introduce San Francisco opportunities to more Chinese restaurant operators who are headed overseas for market expansion," she said.

Thanks to the help of ChinaSF, more than 26 Chinese companies have recruited in San Francisco over the past five years. It has also helped many local companies provide services or establish a presence in China.

On the mayor' first trip in early April of this year, the delegation's stops included Hong Kong, Beijing and Guangdong.

chenjia@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 09/26/2013 page2)