By John Leggett – The Courier-Herald

Buckley Mayor Pat Johnson took a giant leap of faith, got on an airplane Sunday and flew to China to pay a visit to Buckley's sister city of Wanning.

Wanning, with a population of 60,000, is on the island of Hainan. Hainan is the second largest island in China, after Taiwan, and sits along the South China Sea. It is an island that is attempting to become America's version of Hawaii, trying to develop its vacation and tourism industries.

Before she left for China, Johnson expressed no hesitation about experiencing such a different culture. “People are people no matter where you go in this world,” she said. “Sometimes I think we as Americans lose sight of that fact. This is a great opportunity to discover the way a different culture from ours works.

“We see this as an excellent chance for our cultures to experience one another. This program opens the doors for American students and teachers to see what China is like and vice versa.

President Dwight Eisenhower envisioned the People To People program, which spawned the sister city program in the mid-1950s, Johnson said, “because he felt that maybe if countries got to know one another, there would be less chance of war occurring between those countries.”

When Ron Chow, who sits on Gov. Chris Gregoire's Commission for Asian Affairs, caught wind of the fact that Johnson was interested in going to China and becoming involved in the program, he set up everything and made Johnson an honored guest of the Chinese government, which is footing the majority of the bill for the week-long excursion.

“I really feel privileged to be taking a trip to China, especially under these circumstances,” Johnson said. “My father was in the Merchant Marines and he used to talk about visiting Hong Kong and Shanghai, so it is something I've always wanted to experience.”