Port Elizabeth seems to be part of a large family, and has a few sister cities, including Tainan in Taiwan, and Jacksonville, Florida as well as Palm Desert, California,in USA!
The one I have always felt was the closest relation is Gothenberg in Sweden. When Panoramio first started on Google Earth, and there was a small community of photographers who all corresponded and knew each other, a guy called Andreas Elmquist from Gothenberg used to post pix, and I was putting a lot of Port Elizabrth pix on the site, and we often noticed how many similarities there were between the two cities.
This was reinforced when a replica of an East Indiaman wooden ship was built in Sweden, and embarked on a historic voyage along the same route to China that its counterpart would have sailed in the 18th Century. The Götheborg came to Port Elizabeth in March 2006 en route to China.
We made contact with Gothenberg Daily Photo, and agreed to swop photos, so we have given them one of the ship when it was here, and they have given us one of her triumphant return to Sweden in 2007.
Which just goes to show that, if the whole idea of sister cities is to foster international friendship and co-operation, it works!
The portal seems to be down, but I am sure as you visit the various city blogs, you will find one who has the link list posted, and you can follow those links for more sister cities.
Hello from your sister city! It’s cool we both have pics of the very same ship :)/Gothenburg daily city
Another of Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay)’s sister cities is Ningbo in China. I will have the priviledge to go there from 24 – 30 September and will be back in town on 2 October. I am really looking forward to the trip and to take as many pics as I can. Look out for pics of Ningbo on my blog soon after my return.
Here in the UK they are obsessed with twinning. On my way to work this morning I noticed a sign in the station saying that Liverpool Street station in London is twinned with Amsterdam Centraal station! We even twin stations, LOL!
cool, enjoy your trip J. looking forward to the pix!
What a wonderful city to be partnered with. Isn’t that South Africa’s flag waving boldly on the breakwater in Goteborgs?