Family ties from history remain intact

Guling, a centuries-old resort town in the mountains about 13 km from downtown Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, is renowned as a place where foreigners settled after the First Opium War when the city was forced to open as a trading port to the West.

In February 2012, during his trip to the United States, then Vice-President Xi Jinping recounted an old story: An American man called Milton Gardner grew up in Guling. He had fond memories of his childhood there and wished he could return. Sadly, Gardner died before he could fulfill his dream.

Xi heard the story in 1992 when he worked in Fuzhou as the secretary of the city Party committee, and that year he invited Gardner's widow Elizabeth to visit Fuzhou and Guling.