For Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, a visit to the upcoming World Expo starting in May in Shanghai will have both professional and personal meanings.

Newsom is scheduled to lead a delegation of hundreds of members to stage San Francisco Week in June during the Shanghai Expo to showcase cultural diversity of the US city with ballet, opera and other performances.

"You have countries that are participating but cities don't necessarily have sponsored weeks at the Expo. San Francisco may be the only city that have its own week, which we think is very significant," the mayor said Tuesday at a City Hall roundtable briefing with Chinese media.

San Francisco, with a large Chinese American population, this year is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its sister-city relationship with Shanghai -- the first such tie established between Chinese and US cities.

Recognizing its friendship with Shanghai and Shanghai's importance as an economic center in China, San Francisco in 2008 chose the Chinese city as the site of its first overseas office.

At the Shanghai Expo, San Francisco is also planning to showcase innovative projects including green buildings by participating in the Urban Best Practices Area, a specific exhibition section of the Expo.

Newsom has said that "Better City, Better Life," the theme of the Shanghai Expo, exemplifies San Francisco's urban strategy over all these years.

"I don't think you'll find a US city that does more in environment than San Francisco," the mayor told Chinese reporters, believing there is a lot for the city to share and to learn at the Shanghai Expo.

(Xinhua February 24, 2010)