{"id":243373,"date":"2026-03-30T13:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243373\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:32:09","slug":"lurie-to-visit-china-and-korea-on-first-official-international-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243373\/","title":{"rendered":"Lurie to visit China and Korea on first official international trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie will visit Shanghai and Seoul, South Korea, next month in his first official international trip since taking office. The trip is meant to promote tourism, strengthen sister-city ties, and expand arts and cultural exchange.<\/p>\n

The mayor will depart for China April 17; from Shanghai, he\u2019ll fly April 21 to Seoul for two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisiting Shanghai and Seoul, two beloved sister cities of San Francisco, will allow us to deepen our relationship with Chinese and Korean communities and cultural organizations,\u201d Lurie told The Standard. \u201cWhen we share what makes San Francisco special with the rest of the world, we bring exciting new opportunities for our residents and visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office said Lurie will pay for his own flights and hotels. Travel expenses for accompanying city staff will be covered by the San Francisco International Airport\u2019s tourism fund.<\/p>\n

Shanghai and Seoul have been sister cities (opens in new tab)<\/a> of San Francisco for 46 and 51 years, respectively. Plans for Lurie to visit China have been in the works since last year.<\/p>\n

\"AElected officials, Chinese diplomats, and community leaders raise the China flag in City Hall. | Source: Chinese Consulate in San Francisco<\/p>\n

Amid the geopolitical tension between the U.S. and China (opens in new tab)<\/a>, the trip will focus on arts and culture. Lurie is expected to visit the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Shanghai Grand Opera House, among other arts institutions.<\/p>\n

Representatives of SFO, SF Travel, the San Francisco Ballet and Opera, the Asian Art Museum, SFMOMA, the SF Conservatory of Music, and the Giants will join the delegation.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Opera recently completed a high-profile and successful run of The Monkey King<\/a>, a production based on the classic Chinese novel, and is now exploring a potential tour to China.<\/p>\n

Matthew Shilvock, SF Opera\u2019s general director, said the organization is deeply interconnected with the sister cities in Asia and welcomed the upcoming trip as an opportunity to strengthen those ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur connection to Shanghai and its conservatory dates back to the 1980s, and our extraordinary music director, Eun Sun Kim, grew up in Seoul and is one of the most celebrated Korean musicians on the global stage,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Shilvock will not join the trip due to a previously scheduled commitment, and Doreen Woo Ho, an Opera board member and prominent Chinese American philanthropist, confirmed she will join.<\/p>\n

Gorretti Lo Lui, vice president of the Asian Art Museum Foundation, also said she will attend.<\/p>\n

Lurie\u2019s visit will also promote tourism. San Francisco is projected to have nearly 300,000 visitors from China this year, generating $561 million in economic impact, and 147,000 visitors from South Korea, contributing nearly $280 million.<\/p>\n

As mayor, Lurie has been a frequent attendee (opens in new tab)<\/a> at events hosted by the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. It has long been a tradition for San Francisco mayors to visit China, where they are often received with significant hospitality (opens in new tab)<\/a> from local leaders. Lurie is expected to meet with the mayor of Shanghai.<\/p>\n

Former Mayor London Breed in 2024 traveled to China<\/a>, where she met with the vice president (opens in new tab)<\/a> and secured an agreement for a pair of giant pandas<\/a> to be loaned to the San Francisco Zoo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie will visit Shanghai and Seoul, South Korea, next month in his first official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[3573,636,74740,2290,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-243373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-china","tag-daniel-lurie","tag-korea","tag-mayor-of-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}