They exchanged the small, rectangular cards as a means of communication, shaking hands, smiling and attempting to pronounce each other's names and titles—even though they spoke different languages.

Monte Sereno City Councilman David Baxter took a trip to the city in eastern China in November 2003, along with other community leaders from the South Bay, as a way to develop a cultural exchange and a sister-city relationship. But Xinxiang—population 5.4 million—and Monte Sereno—population 3,700—are two contrasting cities.

"It was kind of a random match," said Monte Sereno City Manager Brian Loventhal. "But it goes to show that a city of that size can work with a city of our size."

Monte Sereno Mayor Erin Garner said Xinxiang did the initial outreach as part of an opportunity through the U.S.­China Exchange Association. He added that Monte Sereno is hoping to attain areas of business synergies and an informal friendship.

"Besides the friendship, we'd also like to build a bridge between the cities for economical and business purposes—so there's a pipeline between these two cities," said Haiyan Zhao, vice mayor of Xinxiang Municipal Government, through translator Lawrence Wong.

Baxter described more about the South Bay and Monte Sereno to the handful of Chinese leaders.

"This area, also known as Silicon Valley/Santa Clara, has 15 cities. While there are 15 individual cities, it's hard to tell when you are leaving one city and entering another because of the density," Baxter said.

Monte Sereno—a residential city founded in 1957—is home to people who work throughout the Silicon Valley, Baxter said, and was formed as an independent city not to be annexed with any neighboring cities. He went on to explain how the city council functions. Baxter and Garner explained that both of their terms will be coming up for reelection this year.

"We hope this visit has brought us good luck for the election," said Garner, smiling.

Zhao said Xinxiang includes 12 different counties. The city incorporates farming of wheat and rice, factory production, medicine, tourism and many businesses and foreign companies. She said the city also manufactures at least 10 brand-name products and features six colleges and universities.

"Xinxiang is a rising, new city in China," she said.

She said her city officials place importance on building good relationships with businesses in America with the hope that those businesses will eventually come to Xinxiang.

Zhao—as well as Chinese officials Lixing Gao, an executive of Yanjin's county government; Lianliang Zhu, president of a grain and oil company; Dongsheng Li, president of a fertilizer factory; and Shi Li, director of Xinxiang's foreign trade and economic cooperation bureau—visited Los Angeles, New York City and Washington prior to coming to the Bay Area. Following visits to Monte Sereno and Sunnyvale, the group traveled to Hawaii and Seattle.

During the visit to Monte Sereno City Hall, the visitors learned and tested Santa Clara County's new electronic voting system, which was implemented in the March 2 election.

"If you can use an ATM machine, you can do this," Loventhal said.

Rob Salisbury and Julia Jou, election specialists with the county Registrar of Voters, explained to the Chinese visitors how the new machine functions. The electronic ballot offers choices in five languages, Salisbury said, and also features an audio option for the visually impaired. The selections on the monitor are touch activated, and once a user chooses a candidate or proposition, all other choices are blocked. Voters can also review their choices and make changes before casting their final vote, offering less room for error.

"There's less ambiguity about how people vote this way," Salisbury said. "It also prevents over-voting."

Even absentee voting has been updated to a more simplified process, Jou said, rather than last year's punch-card system. And after the results are stored in the system's hardware, a backup copy is created. Jou said the new computerized system also makes the process easier and less time-consuming for poll counters.

Deputy Consul-General Tian Chunyan, with the Chinese Consulate of San Francisco, explained how the Chinese voting system differs from that of the U.S.

"It's complicated," she said. "We don't have direct elections like you do. But direct elections have been introduced on the county level."

Chinese officials are elected on a county level by their constituents, representing the will of the people. She said the process can be compared to how delegates are picked prior to Democratic or Republican conventions. Those Chinese representatives then vote on behalf of their providences, and then vote at the even higher central-government level. "We think that at present it's a good system because we have such a large population," Chunyan said.