Ping-Pong Diplomacy chalks up 50 years

"The feeling of friendship in the room is really wonderful," Lehman said amid cheers and applause.

"When people have the opportunity for exchanges through sports or other interests that bring us together, we gain understanding of each other－and that helps break down barriers."

Lehman has always striven to bridge relations between the two countries. As president of Cornell University from 2003 to 2005, part of his job was to renew ties with China.

The US delegation arrived in China 50 years ago on Saturday at the invitation of the Chinese table tennis team.

After more than two decades of estrangement and antagonism between the two nations, the visitors played demonstration matches against Chinese players in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Believed to have helped pave the way for people-to-people exchanges between the two nations, Ping-Pong Diplomacy also laid the groundwork for US President Richard Nixon's landmark one-week visit to China in 1972 and the establishment of diplomatic relations on Jan 1, 1979.