In the Chinese Spring Festival, Chao Huayang and Shen Jie had an unexpected encounter with history when they married at the most prestigious hotel in Shanghai.

At the gate of the Grand Hall of the Jin Jiang Hotel hangs a glittering plaque which reads: "The Shanghai Communique was signed here by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and U.S. President Richard Nixon in February 1972."

"We didn't realise the Jin Jiang Grand Hall was the birthplace of the Sino-U.S. Shanghai Communique until we booked the wedding banquet," 32-year-old groom Chao said. "It was a real surprise and really added significance to our wedding."

The Grand Hall in the Jin Jiang Hotel, widely known for hosting diplomatic occasions in Shanghai, witnessed numerous historical moments.

Former U.S. President Richard Nixon made his epochmaking visit to China during Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, 1972. The historic handshakes across the Pacific between Chinese and U.S. leaders marked a turning point in the Cold War.

On Feb. 28, 1972, Zhou Enlai and Nixon jointly released the Shanghai Communique to media at the Jin Jiang Grand Hall, opening the door for normalizing Sino-U.S. relations.

Qiu Huanxi, director of the Corporate Culture Board of Jin Jiang Hotel, said Nixon was the first distinguished Western guest that the hotel had ever hosted since the founding of new China in 1949. Since then, the hotel has received more than 350 heads of state and government from some 140 countries.

"We now play host to the visitors with ease. The nervousness and excitement we experienced during Nixon's first visit are long gone," Qiu said.

Thirty-five years later, the Chinese people can still feel the impact of the event on their life.

Wang Ming, a researcher with the Shanghai International Trade Institute and daughter of a prestigious Chinese scholar, said the fate of her whole family had been changed by the landmark visit.

Her late father, Wang Yaotian, ended his enforced labor transformation in the countryside and returned to Shanghai in the same year of Nixon's visit. The farther used to serve as an interpreter of U.S. military in China during World War II and later studied and obtained doctor's degree in the United States.

"As my father heard that Nixon was to visit China, his first comment was 'It's like a breath of warmth in cold winter,'" Wang Ming said.

On the eve of Nixon's visit, her father compiled a book for students about the United States based on his earlier experience in the country. Wang Ming later became a legal expert on the World Trade Organization. And her son and nephews spent years in the U.S. to study law on international economics.

"The fate of my family is closed connected with China's reform and opening to the outside world," Wang Ming said.

"We can not forget the strategic decision that late Chinese leaders made to improve Sino-U.S. relations in the difficult times of the Cultural Revolution," said the 55-year-old Wang.

The legacy of Nixon's visit has taken deep roots around China. The redwood saplings that Nixon presented to China in 1972 have been transplanted in more than 18 provinces. The fast growing wood has become a cash cow for local farmers and a protection against tide erosion in coastal areas. Farmers in Haining county, Zhejiang Province, have developed large-scale plantations to produce redwood saplings for commercial returns.

China and the United States agreed in 1997 to build a constructive relationship of cooperation facing the 21st century. Now the two countries have closer cooperation both in world affairs and trade.

Millions of Chinese found jobs in factories producing toys, clothes and shoes for the U.S. market as the latter became China's second largest trade partner. Trade volume between the two countries hit 262.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2006.

A direct flight from Beijing to Washington will be inaugurated in 2007 and it is highly symbolic.

Source: Xinhua