Yuan Tan tells anyone who will listen about the wonderful attributes of living and doing business in Boise.

She has lived in New York, Connecticut and the Silicon Valley, but after two visits here, she was hooked.

“I think it’s a great place to start a new business,” she said. “It’s also a great place to start a family.”

Tan moved to Boise to join her husband, Zaiyuan Ren, who works for Micron Technology. They chose Boise for the skiing, golfing and fishing — and for the housing that’s five times cheaper than in California.

She was volunteering with the Idaho Chinese Cultural and Business Center at the Boise Centre Thursday to help host the delegation of business and government representatives from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The China Council has a 15-year relationship with the state of Idaho and has helped coordinate many of the trade missions to China.

The company representatives came from construction, light manufacturing, mining, food and electronics industries. They were looking for both trade and investment opportunities.

And the China Council itself put itself fully behind the state’s efforts to build on its $657 million in Idaho-to-China exports in 2010. China is the state’s third-largest trade partner.

“Idaho has the most favorable policies for investment in the U.S.,” said Zhan Ruichao, a China Council deputy director. “It also has the most efficient staff we have ever met.”

Like Tan, these Chinese leaders have read the conservative blogs and stories that have warned against allowing Chinese investment into Idaho. But several said Thursday they didn’t think it amounted to much.

Ji Lie, deputy secretary general of the Chamber of International Commerce, Shanghai, was looking for investment opportunities in Idaho and was impressed with Boise. She dismissed the bloggers’ reports.

“I think we in China, the Chinese people, know the United States more than the American people know China,” Jie said.

Zang Xin, a China Council regional coordinator, said the bloggers’ fears of China aren’t just political.

“It’s the same thing that happened in the 1980s with the Japanese,” Xin said.

Midge Woods of Terra Blue, a firm that seeks to bring companies with common interests together, had brought Bill Rauser and Rodney Rohm of 208 Wireless Business Integration and Sharon Oberleiterner of Behavior Imaging to seek Chinese investors. She said the anti-China reports were based on ignorance.

“They never question. They never meet,” Woods said. “They never have a relationship.”

But the stories resonated for some.

A group of local residents planned to meet at Meridian City Hall Thursday night to “Stop the Chinese invasion of Boise.” The get-together was billed on Facebook as a follow-up to a meeting in mid-June.

Tan, the Boise newcomer, said she knows many Chinese who will like Idaho. She said all she has seen since she moved to Boise are friendly people who have welcomed her into the community.

“I hope to attract more Chinese investors and jobs,” she said.

She’s starting a business translating Chinese books into English and American books into Chinese. Boise’s only downfall, she said, might even be a future business opportunity for someone.

“There are not a lot of good Chinese restaurants here,” she said.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484