February 26, 1972 – Hangzhou

The morning of February 26 was spent making final preparations for travel from Peking to the next stop on the President’s trip, Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province. President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai left for Peking’s Capitol Airport at 8:30 a.m. and...

February 25, 1972 – The Forbidden City

President Nixon’s last full day in Peking began with a tour of the Forbidden City, which is now one of Beijing’s biggest tourist attractions.  Situated in the middle of Beijing, it was the center of Chinese politics for five hundred years, serving as the imperial...

Nixon Aide Discusses Pioneering Trip

Stephen Hess, who assisted Vice President Nixon on his first book Six Crises, and later served as the 37th President’s Deputy Assistant for Urban Affairs, explains the genesis of the vision for the China journey: In a restorative break from an intense Beijing...

More On The 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s China Trip

Besides the informative Daily Beast article by Winston Lord and Leslie Gelb discussed in Jonathan Movroydis’s post below, a large number of other stories have appeared online marking the four decades  since President Nixon shook Premier Zhou Enlai’s hand on the tarmac...