(Yicai Global) March 4 -- He Zhaofa, 85, has recalled how he received Richard Nixon during the former US president’s visit to China five decades ago.

The hotel manager was notified of Nixon’s visit to Shanghai one and a half months in advance and started making preparations, He told Yicai Global. Jinjiang Hotel Shanghai set up a reception team and made changes to the rooms, food and drinks, as well as the overall hotel environment.

The team made more detailed preparations in the presidential suite on the hotel’s 16th floor. “The arrangements were based on Nixon’s taste for traditional Chinese culture, calligraphy and paintings,” He said.

The team also knocked through the locker room in the suite to give president and his wife more space to walk around, a change that remains to this day. 

The US delegation of more than 300 people arrived at the hotel on Feb. 27, 1972. China and the US penned the Shanghai Communique that afternoon, and Nixon and his wife returned to their suite late at night, He recalled.

He served in the suite and said Nixon “was in a completely different mood” after returning. “He was delighted and relieved, and started to admire the furnishings in the suite.”

Nixon appreciated the mahogany shell furniture and his wife liked the hand-made double-sided embroidery with a Persian cat pattern, so the needlework was given to them as a gift.

He and his colleagues bought the embroidery in Suzhou, he told Yicai Global, adding that “it cost a fortune.”

Nixon left Jinjiang Hotel on the morning of Feb. 28, 1972 and flew back to the United States. “Jinjiang Hotel Shanghai is one of the best hotels that I have stayed in,” the president wrote in a message before leaving.

Nixon stayed in Jinjiang Hotel again during visits to China in 1982 and 1993. He met staff from his 1972 trip, including He, telling them that “China-US relations started here.”

Editor: Tom Litting