TURNING POINT: Chairman Mao Zedong (third left) meets visiting U.S. President Richard Nixon (second right) in Beijing on February 21, 1972 (XINHUA) 

PING-PONG DIPLOMACY: A U.S. table tennis team arrives in Beijing on April 10, 1971, becoming the first group of Americans to come to China since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 (XINHUA)

ICEBREAKER: U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger (front left), along with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ji Pengfei (front right), visits the Great Wall in Beijing during his trip to China in October 1971. All members of the U.S. delegation were accompanied by their respective Chinese counterparts during their visit, which laid the groundwork for U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic tour the following year (CFP)

 WELCOME: U.S. President Jimmy Carter talks with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the White House on January 29, 1979, during Deng's visit, the first by a Chinese leader to the United States since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 (GUO ZHANYING)

POPULIST: U.S. President George H. W. Bush holds a Chinese girl at a church in Beijing during his visit to China in February 1989, as U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord and his wife Bette Bao Lord look on (REN CHENMING) 

RANCH GATHERING: Visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin and his wife Wang Yeping met with U.S. President George W. Bush and the First Lady Laura Bush in Bush's private ranch in Crawford, Texas, on October 25, 2002. (LI XUEREN) 

 CHEERS: Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping toasts visiting U.S. President Gerald Ford at a dinner in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on December 4, 1975(GETTY IMAGES)

8. LOOKING GOOD: U.S. President Bill Clinton visits the Great Wall in Beijing with his wife and daughter in June 1998 (CNSPHOTO)