Clipper ships were the mainstays of the China trade during the 19th century (LOC)

An early 20th century warehouse in Hankow (LOC)

Former President Ulysses S. Grant confers with Chinese diplomat Li Hung Chang in 1879 (Corbis)

Chinese communist party leader Mao Tse-Tung, left, and U.S. President Richard Nixon shake hands as they meet, Feb. 21, 1972. Nixon's visit marks the first time an American president has visited the People's Republic of China. (AP Photo)

American author Pearl Buck (AP Images)

Guarded by a Chinese soldier, a squadron of Curtiss P-40 fighter planes, decorated with the typical shark face of the famed Flying Tigers, are lined up at an unknown airbase in China in 1943. (AP Photo)

Vera Wang (AP Images)

Secretary of Commerce Juanita Kreps signs documents at the Canton Trade Fair, 1979 (AP Images)

Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and President Jimmy Carter in Washington, 1979 (AP Images)

EdgarSnow, pictured here with Mao Zedong in the 1960s, first began reporting on China during the 1930s (FMPRC)

The U.S. table tennis team and their guides at the Summer Palace, Beijing, 1971 (Corbis)

Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian