The key to yachting

Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich handed visiting Mayor Chen Chu from Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, the key to the city Saturday before the two headed out on the water for a tour of Newport Harbor aboard a 98-foot Horizon yacht, the “Reverie.”

Like many of the luxury yachts in Southern California, the “Reverie” was built in Kaohsiung City, where boat building is a major industry.

Chen is visiting the United States at the invitation of the U.S. State Department to promote the 2009 World Games, which Kaohsiung City will host July 16 to 26.

She asked to visit Newport Beach to see the many yachts in the harbor that were built in Kaohsiung City.

“We are working very hard to make Kaohsiung City a representation of the yacht industry,” Chen said through an interpreter. “I hope on my next visit here 100% of the yachts here will be from Kaohsiung City.”

Selich and his fiancee, Lynn Hackman, also gave Chen a framed painting of Newport’s Balboa Pavilion as seen from Newport Harbor.

Chen has invited Selich to visit Kaohsiung City for the World Games in July.

— Brianna Bailey