Major US port city hosts grand Chinese New Year celebration

Long Beach, a major port city in the United States, last weekend hosted the largest Chinese New Year celebration in Southern California, an event that organizers said reflects the city's decades-long commitment to bridging cultures and fostering trade partnerships across the Pacific.

The celebration staged music and dance performances featuring diverse Asian traditions and drew nearly 15,000 attendees.

"We have a lot of people coming in. They have a very diverse background. Again, our sister city of Long Beach, our goal is to promote peace, is to bring people together, and that's what it is all about. Today, we have a very diverse performance," said Richer San, board chairman of the Sister Cities of Long Beach.

With a population of nearly half a million, Long Beach is the second-busiest port city in the U.S. and home to numerous companies and business organizations with close ties to Asian trade partners, especially China.

"We're awfully pleased to have such good relationships with our port cities. Many of our sister cities are also port cities, particularly our China's Qingdao Port, and we just celebrated our 40th anniversary with our Chinese sister city, Qingdao, we happened to go there with the mayor during the Qingdao beer festival. Were we happy or what?" said Susan Redfield, president of the Sister Cities of Long Beach.

A sister city relationship was established in 1985 between Long Beach and Qingdao, a major coastal city in eastern China. These decades-long ties are helping both port cities navigate the challenges of a complex global landscape, work furthered by the Long Beach-Qingdao Association, which was founded the same year.

"I'm awfully grateful that we have such good relationships with our port, with our other port cities, particularly with regard to commercial trade, and at this particular time in our country, it's been a challenge, and we're awfully grateful that it looks like things are looking up. We have a lot of resiliency with our businesses here, and we're growing and expanding them, particularly with Cambodia and other cities, and always with China, of course," Redfield said.

The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Monday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, dropped 0.09 percent to 97.705 at 15:00 (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1792 dollars from 1.1780 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.3490 dollars from 1.3491 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 154.62 Japanese yen, lower than 155.02 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.7744 Swiss francs from 0.7754 Swiss francs, and it was up to 1.3696 Canadian dollars from 1.3686 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar advanced to 9.0647 Swedish kronor from 9.0540 Swedish kronor.