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Yorba Linda, California: It was an unlikely diplomatic tool amid the escalating rhetoric of the Cold War: a few paddles, a few ping pong balls and nine giddy US table tennis players in a country Americans hadn't seen for decades.
Yet the week of table tennis exhibition games in China in April 1971 helped open China to the world, changed public opinion and paved the way for a groundbreaking visit from President Richard Nixon, who is credited today with restoring diplomatic ties between the nations.
More than three decades later, China and the US will pay homage this week to the now-famous "ping pong diplomacy" with a three-day event at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in California that culminates in a rematch between several of the original - and ageing - athletes.
The games also are designed as a tribute to the friendly relations between the two nations today and as a prelude to the Beijing Olympics, an event that some believe would not have been possible without the detente that began over a ping pong table.
"Back in the 1970s, the communist Chinese were evil people," said Steve Bull, director of government relations for the US Olympic Committee.
"No one was envisioning that this dramatic trip to China would be a precursor to re-establishing diplomatic relations."
The Americans also quickly realised that the far superior Chinese were letting them win.
"It was a world-changing event and I wish we could do some of our diplomacy more like that now," said Judy Hoarfrost, now 52, the team's youngest member in 1971.
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