John L. Holden, a torchbearer from the United States hugs his Chinese counterpart. [Xinhua]

XINING: He has been in love with China for 37 years. And he has seen its rapid growth during the past three decades.

Pride was added to John L. Holden's double happiness Tuesday, when he became one of the two foreigners to carry the Olympic torch in Qinghai province.

The familiar way the 56-year-old American greeted the people in Xining did not raise a doubt that he was visiting the city for the first time. His fluent Chinese and amiable nature gave the feeling he was meeting old friends.

The chairman of Shaklee (China), a California-based natural nutrition firm set up in 1954, loved introducing himself as He Liqiang, his Chinese name.

Called a zhongguotong (Chinese expert) by his friends and associates, Holden has lived in China since 1974, shuttling from Beijing to Hong Kong to Taipei.

His relationship with China, however, started even earlier. "I fell in love with the Chinese people and their culture when I was a 19 year-old college student in 1971, the year Henry Kissinger visited Beijing secretly to re-establish US-China relations," he says.

"That was when I started studying Chinese and was given my Chinese name. I was fortunate to visit China in 1974, during the 'cultural revolution', and even more fortunate to witness the enormous progress made since the reform and opening up policy was introduced in 1978."

Holden believes international exchanges, such as the Olympics, have the power to promote understanding and peace. That is precisely why he has dedicated himself to strengthening Sino-US talks and cooperation.

His efforts intensified from 1998 to 2005 when he was president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, which played host to the Chinese ping-pong team during that historic visit in 1972.

"The Olympics will always mean something very special to me," Holden says. "I'll never forget being moved to tears watching Chinese athletes smiling proudly at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which I saw in a storefront in Beidaihe, huddled around a black and white TV with the store's owners and their family and friends."

His strong interest in the Olympics prompted him to enter the online contest, co-organized by the Lenovo Group and China Daily, for the eight slots for expatriate torchbearers.

Since only one person from one country could be chosen, Holden didn't make to the finals. Jenny Bowen, founder and chairwoman of the orphanage charity organization, Half the Sky Foundation, was the American who was chosen torchbearer.

But Holden did not give up. And his strong bond with China won him a Lenovo nomination in the end. "I feel greatly privileged to be a torchbearer It is a great honor to play a role in this historic event by representing expatriates living in China."