Shanghai: City of sisterly love

Our buddies at SFist have informed us that San Francisco and Shanghai are "sister cities," and to celebrate this fact, SF mayor Gavin Newsom has graced our fair city with his presence. We wonder if he realizes that almost every city in the world is sisters with Shanghai: Dunedin, Dubai, Cork, Hamburg, Chicago, Liverpool, Windhoek ... and that's just from the first page of Google results. What ever happened to the one-child policy?

Here's what SFist wrote about the visit:

Sister sister - Shanghai and SF affirmed their 25 years of friendship as Gavin and Shanghai mayor Han Zheng totally touched their cut pinky fingers together to affirm their sister city status. Gavin sprung for the trip "himself" (i.e., he's flying with the Gettys), and is bringing Plumpjack wine to present to the Shanghai mayor too.

The two mayors pledged to do a lot of things - like build a Chinese garden on Divisadero. Among other things, Michael Tilson Thomas will take the SF Symphony to Shanghai, SF will sponsor a ping-pong tournament, and (this is totally our favorite) the two cities will work on making more affordable housing. But you know what we really want? A panda!!!!!! Gavin, get us a panda!

Awwwww, we love you, Shanghaiist! Will you be our sister citysite? (if we're not sisters already, come to think of it?) And more importantly - can you get us (and not Oakland) a panda? Jen, can we start Chengdu-ist soon?

Sister. Brother. Whatever -- we are always here for you SFist! And we'll see what we can do about that panda.

UPDATE: Um, yeah. That panda thing? Not gonna happen.

Photo of Gavin Newsom in Shanghai by the San Francisco Sentinel.