Rockville and Yilan, Taiwan, Cement Official Sister City Agreement at Signing Ceremony
Rockville and Yilan, Taiwan, Cement Official Sister City Agreement at Signing Ceremony
July 18, 2019
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.