The Shanghai leg of the 55th anniversary of China-US Ping-Pong Diplomacy kicked off at Shanghai University of Sport on April 13, featuring a welcome ceremony and friendly matches.

As a key stop during the US table tennis team's historic 1971 visit to China, Shanghai captured the warmth of the two nations' early ice-breaking people-to-people exchanges through matches at Jiangwan Stadium and warm street welcomes.

Fifty-five years on, US side witnesses, including Judy Louise Hoarfrost, Jan Carol Berris, Connie Mae Sweeris, and her husband Dell Arthur Sweeris, joined Chinese veterans Yao Zhenxu and Xu Yinsheng, along with the US table tennis delegation, to revisit history, weaving a half-century of cultural and people-to-people ties through their personal stories.

Hoarfrost, then 15 and the youngest member of the US team, visited China in 1971, with Shanghai leaving an indelible impression. On her 10th trip to China, she said the city had changed dramatically, but the hospitality of the Chinese people remained unchanged.