Recently I sent a question to Google regarding visits by US citizens
to The Peoples Republic of China. The intent of my question was to
explore contacts between these two nations from the period January
1950 to December 1970.
The question was rejeced on the grounds that it asked for personal
information about private US citizens (question no. 267957 )

 I would therfore like to ask a new question which  will provide the
same general information that I was originally seeking.

  Between the time frame January 1950 to December 1970
  I would like 10 examples of each of the following:
  Instances where citizens of the United States made visits to the
  Peoples Republic of China?
  Instances where citizens of the Peoples Republic of China visited the
  United States of America?
   
  I AM NOT seeking necessarily the names of people who would have made 
  these trips. Reference to lets say a business , sporting or Political  
  delegation woild suffice.

  However the examples I am  seeking  must have the following 
  Qualifications:
  The trips to the countries involved would be fully sanctioned by the 
  hosting nation (i.e. the host country would presumably issued a visiting 
  Visa)     
  The visitors would have returned to their respective country of 
  Citizenship. (i.e. US citizens to the PRC would have returned to the US
  after their visit to the PRC and vice Versa)

  The visits could be for any reason including tourism,journalism,
  Sports delegation, business delegation, political delegation etc. 

  Thanks 

  Mongolia

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 19 Nov 2003 12:57 PST

any information on this?  Mongolia

---

Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 19 Nov 2003 13:02 PST

Hello mongolia-ga,

I started researching your question and I discovered that it's very
tough to find anything before China's relations with the rest of the
world changed after Nixon's breakthroug visit  in 1972. Could you tell
us a little more about what reseach you've done and what you found?
Are you interested in visits from specific countries? The more
information you can share, the more likely we'll be able to help you.
Thanks.

~ czh ~

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 21 Nov 2003 14:33 PST

Hi Ya CZH

 Perhaps a good starting point for your investigation would be Edgar Snow. He 
 was a Missouri born Journalist who visted China in the 1960's and 1970 at the 
 invitation of the then Chinese leadership (i.e Zhou-en Lai and Mao Tse Tung)
 During one of his visits to the Peoples Republic of China he reports  having 
  met some  American tourists but they were not willing to reveal how they
  managed to visit the PRC at that point in time.

  Another perhaps least known avenue of inquiry would be an Australian
travel agent (I believe it was called Orbis) which started to do tours
of the Peoples Republic of China as early as 1963. From what I
understand at least one American citizen managed to travel to the PRC
in the early sixties with this particular travel Agency.

 My overiding point of interest is how two very significant countries
  (i.e US and PRC) could have had next to no people contact for 20 years.
  So before I go on too much (perhaps I should be charging you :-)) I would be
 delighted to hear of other significant contacts between the PRC and
the US for the time frame I have mentioned.

 Mongolia

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 22 Nov 2003 05:19 PST

any progress on this?

---

Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 23 Nov 2003 23:39 PST

Hello mongolia-ga

Interesting clarification ? and I?m still unable to proceed. 

You indicate that you know of foreign visitors to China during the Mao
years. Do you want researchers to confirm the visits that you refer to
in your clarification?

You say: ?I would be delighted to hear of other significant contacts
between the PRC and the US.? Is this the question you?re asking?

You also say: ?My overriding point of interest is how two very
significant countries (i.e US and PRC) could have had next to no
people contact for 20 years.? Are you looking for an overview of US ?
PRC relations in the time period you?ve specified?

I?d love to work on this, but I?m not sure what you would consider a
satisfactory answer.

~ czh ~

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 12 Dec 2003 15:16 PST

Hi Czh

 First my apologies for not getting back sooner(for various reasons I
have not been able to access Google answers recently!)

 to start with My question remains exactly as I have initially stated:

  Between the time frame January 1950 to December 1970
  I would like 10 examples of each of the following:
  Instances where citizens of the United States made visits to the
  Peoples Republic of China?
  Instances where citizens of the Peoples Republic of China visited the
  United States of America?


  Just to add some clarification 
   I am not interested in contacts between other countries in 
   the timeframe I have mentioned. (Many countries  would have had
some contacts in terms of people to people visits to the PRC)
 My question specifically relates to the USA and Peoples Republic of China.

  Visits between the two countries would have been officially sanctioned
  by the hosting country for the timeframe I have mentioned.
  
  I am not interested in 'visits' which would have been espionage missions
   or defections.

 As a further clarification , I am interested in the very specific
time period I have mentioned.  (During the last part of Mao rule  i.e.
1971 to 1976 , there were many visits b yus citizens to the PRC and
perhaps less the other way
  i.e. citizens of the PRC to the USA)    

  Hope this helps

  Regards

  Mongolia

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 12 Dec 2003 16:22 PST

Hello mongolia-ga,

I've been interested in your question, but as you no doubt realize, it
is a difficult one to research.

Part of the problem is that you are asking for twenty unique examples.
 At the price offered, a researcher would be earning a bit more than a
dollar per example.  I'm afraid that's not offering strong incentive
for us to dive into your question and devote the amount of work and
time that would be needed.

You may want to consider recasting it.  Perhaps ask for one-way
information only (US visitors to China) and look for general
information, rather than 10 or 20 specifics.

For instance, I've unearthed the following article from the New York Times in 1951:

-----

Inside China--A Report From Peiping:In its emergence as a
Kremlin-oriented city it is rapidly being purged of Western
influences.

THERE are two ways for a nonCommunist to visit China these days. One
is by going on business, mostly Government business and usually
diplomatic. The second is by getting on one of the Communistinspired
delegations which periodically make the rounds of all such
countries...
 
-----

The article goes on for a few pages.  Researchers cannot post full
articles in their answers due to copyright reasons, but we can
certainly point you to online sources of information like this that
you could investigate in more detail on your own.

Let us know how you would like to proceed.  Thanks.

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 13 Dec 2003 07:54 PST

Hi Pafalafa

 OK I will try and re-phrase my question
 (Can I imply from your comments that between January 1950 and December 1970 
   there are no known examples of citizens of the PRC visiting the USA?)

  I would like examples of the follwing contacts between the USA and People's
  Republic of China between January 1950 and December 1970

  - US journalists who visted the PRC
  - Visits to the PRC by US politicians
  - US sports delegations which visited PRC.
  - Visits of US scientists to the PRC
  - US military delegations visiting the PRC (at the invitation of
    the Chinese government!)
  - US businessmen who visited the PRC
  - US tourists who visited the PRC
  - Familiy visits by American citizens to the PRC. 
  - Delegations of left wing organisations in the US visiting the PRC
    (e.g. the Communist party of the USA)

   Kind Regards

   Mongolia

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 13 Dec 2003 08:46 PST

Hello again,

The information you're looking for is probably accesible from the NY
Times archives, but here's the problem - to actually read the articles
to find out how relevant they are to your question, a researcher has
to pay a per-article fee.  To reveiw more than a handful or articles
would quickly exceed the earnings for answering the question.

You should probably reveiw the NY Times archives yourself.  Some of
the articles of interest are:

CHURCHMAN COOL TO VISITING CHINA
By GEORGE DUGAN Special to The New York Times.; New York Times; Jan
18, 1957; pg. 7, 1

Montgomery Visits China
New York Times; Sep 6, 1961; pg. 3, 1
 
Ban on China Visit Queried
WALDO FRANK.; New York Times; Sep 11, 1955; pg. E8, 1
 
Easing Travel Bars
New York Times; Dec 31, 1965; pg. 20, 1 

LIFE IN CHINA
STEPHEN ANDORS.; New York Times; Nov 5, 1961; pg. SM12, 1 

CITY EAR SURGEON WILL VISIT CHINA
New York Times; Dec 13, 1964; pg. 67, 1 

 U.S. to Let Families Visit China Captives
By RUSSELL BAKER Special to The New York Times.; New York Times; Dec
7, 1957; pg. 1, 2

Inside China--A Report From Peiping
By JOHN CLEWS; New York Times; Sep 30, 1951; pg. 143, 3

Americans, in Soviet, Would Visit China Again
Special to The New York Times.; New York Times; Oct 6, 1957; pg. 7, 1 

Kotelawala to Visit China
New York Times (1857-Current file); Feb 27, 1955; pg. 51, 1

 CANTON REMAINS AS TRADE CENTER
1965 by The Globe and Mail; New York Times; Dec 26, 1965; pg. 7, 1 


American Pacifist in Japan Is Determined to Visit China
New York Times; Aug 27, 1968; pg. 11, 1

Permission to Visit China Sought by Justice Douglas
New York Times; Jul 18, 1966; pg. 23, 1

PEKING POSTPONES U.S. DOCTOR'S VISIT
Special to The New York Times; New York Times; Dec 21, 1964; pg. 17, 1

 Captive's Mother to Visit China
New York Times; Aug 4, 1960; pg. 7, 1 

British Traders to Visit China
Special to The New York Times.; Nov 3, 1954; pg. 5, 1 

Couve Plans Private Visit To Red China in October
New York Times; Sep 15, 1970; pg. 40, 1

LONG FOREIGN TRIP BY CHOU EXPECTED
New York Times; Aug 18, 1970; pg. 5, 1

==========

There are many more articles to choose from that probably have
relevant information.  If you'd like, I can provide detailed
information on searching the NY Times archives as an answer to your
question -- I can certainly help you to track down articles about
visits to China.

Let me know if that would be useful to you as a means of answering your question.

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 14 Dec 2003 07:58 PST

The new York Times articles would be a good start

 regards

  Mongolia

Hello again, mongolia-ga,

Thank you for posting a very interesting question.

As I explained earlier, I cannot provide you actual copies of the NY
Times articles, but I can certainly answer your question by guiding
you through the process of obtaining the articles yourself.

Ordinarily, it can be quite difficult to research the period you asked
about -- 1950 through 1970 -- because so little information from this
era has been made available in on-line format.

However, the New York Times recently did the research community an
enormous service by making available its archives for on-line
research.  The archives extend back to 1851, and are fast and easy to
search.  You can find the main search page for the archives at:

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/advancedsearch.html

In the ?Search for? box, enter the search terms of interest to you.  I
ran a search on:

 ?visit* china? 

with the quote marks and asterisk included (the asterisk is a ?wild
card? that will search for visit, visiting, and other word endings).

Use the ?Date Range? selections to set the dates of interest; I
searched for articles in the period from January 1, 1950 through
December 31, 1970.

Under ?More Options? select ?Search article only?.

Under ?Sort By? select ?Closest Match?

Click on ?Search?

==========

The results turn up 237 articles in this date range that contain the
phrase ?visit China? or ?visiting China?.  The results are arranged in
order of relevance, so that the articles near the top of the list are
the ones most likely to be germane to your question.

Note that there are buttons near the top of the page that allow you to
re-sort the results by date, from the newest to the oldest, or
vice-versa.

Of course, you can search on other words or phrases as well, such as a
phrase like ?delegation to China?, or the names of particular people
you know to have visited China.  If you would like any assistance on
putting together some selective searches, just let me know and I?ll be
happy to assist you in this.

By clicking on any article of interest, you will usually be taken to a
free preview of the article, with the first few lines of text.  For
instance, clicking on:

CHURCHMAN COOL TO VISITING CHINA
Jan 18, 1957; pg. 7, 1

takes you to:

?BUCK HILL FALLS, Pa., Jan. 17--A leading Methodist mission executive
viewed with considerable misgiving today a recent proposal that a
delegation of American Protestant churchmen be sent to Communist
China...?

Note, however, that not all the previews contain text from the article.  

==========

If you want to then view the full article, click on the link to ?Buy
article image?.  (You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed
to view the articles.  A link will take you to instructions for
downloading the Reader...if you need assistance with this, let me know
and I?ll gladly walk you through the process.)

Lastly, you will see four options for purchasing the article.  You can
buy a single article for $2.95.

Since you are likely to be viewing more than one article from the NY
Times archives, it may well be in your interest to purchase a
?package? of articles.  For instance, for $25.95 you can purchase
access to 25 articles, at a cost of slightly more than a dollar per
article.

==========

The NY Times archives is a tremendous resource for someone like
yourself, interested in ?going to the source? for research into events
of recent U.S. history.   It is also fairly straightforward to put it
to use.  However, if you are not familiar with on-line searching, it
can also be a bit daunting at first.

If you have any problems at all in finding and accessing the articles
you want  -- or if you would simply like additional information --
just let me know by posting a Request for Clarification, and I?ll be
happy to assist your further.

Good luck in your research, and best of the season to you.  

pafalafa-ga