Another interesting thing is that the night before Nixon and his entourage planned to visit the Great Wall, there was a heavy snowfall in Beijing, and the American personnel originally felt that the plan to visit the Great Wall would definitely have to be changed, but Tang Ning said firmly: "Everyone rest assured, we will definitely be able to visit the Great Wall as usual tomorrow." ”

Sure enough, the next day, everything was arranged as usual, and where the convoy passed, there were snow-clearing crowds on both sides of the road, and they used the most primitive tools to clean the road from Diaoyutai to Badaling, which was more than 80 kilometers long. The US side was all surprised by the Chinese's tactics of crowding. Someone asked Tang Ning in surprise: "Tony, you really know the Chinese, this kind of execution and leadership is really terrifying." Tang Ning could only smile bitterly in his heart, not wanting to explain anything.

In fact, for Nixon's visit to China, domestic efforts are not limited to these. Long before Nixon came, Premier Zhou personally issued a general policy for receiving Nixon with neutral standards: "neither lukewarm, neither arrogant nor humble, treat him with courtesy, and not impose on others." He stressed that the reception of President Nixon must reflect the principles, work style, and strict discipline of the proletariat, that everything should be done in an orderly manner, that things should be realistic, that what does not work should be corrected, and that what can be done should be done conscientiously. Be careful not to exaggerate or overdo it in external publicity. (The Biography of Zhou Enlai, p2062)

As the date of the visit approached, the heavy responsibility was slowly shifted to the grassroots level, and the whole capital immediately showed a restless and tense situation. As a major foreign receptionist, the general party branch of Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory attaches great importance to the visit route and environmental layout, and has rehearsed the specific process of receiving and defending foreign guests many times, and verified whether there are loopholes through simulation, and clarified the division of labor and location of each security personnel. On the evening of February 19, a general meeting of the whole plant was held to organize and discipline education for the participants again. Let everyone fully realize that doing a good job in this reception is a struggle to defend Chairman Mao's revolutionary diplomatic line, and it is required to achieve the "four noes": no onlookers, no watching through the window, not walking back and forth in the factory, inside and outside the corridor, and not leaving the production post.

The Municipal Revolutionary Committee's Industrial Communications and Urban Construction Group issued the "four noes" as a disciplinary regulation to all units, and clearly pointed out that this is part of the municipal party committee's deployment work. At that time, China was largely cut off from the outside world. Foreigners are rarely seen in grass-roots units, and the entourage of the President of the United States can be seen, and the workers will inevitably be curious to watch and run back and forth. In the face of such foreseeable details, high-level people feel that they are hindering the country's political image and the people's mental outlook, so they have to fortify everywhere and control them with strict discipline. Arts and crafts factories and other units also proposed that workers should truly achieve the "four displays" from beginning to end, that is, "show the changes and spiritual outlook of our socialist motherland." It shows the moral habits of socialism, the strict organizational discipline of the Chinese workers, and our work style of doing things in an orderly and planned manner. (See "Report on the Preparations for Nixon's Visit to China" issued by the General Party Branch of the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory on February 19, 1972)

Interestingly, within a week of Nixon's visit, the reception units abruptly renovated the changing rooms in the workshop, citing substandard construction materials that were too rudimentary to the view. The locker rooms of many factories in Beijing are mostly built haphazardly with surplus materials during construction. The appearance is dilapidated, and this time the city ordered it to be completely removed. Rebuilt. Some workshops have a total area of more than 800 square meters after the renovation of the men's and women's locker rooms, which are spacious and tidy, and the workers can enjoy the benefits brought by foreign affairs.

At this time, the city's foreign affairs team received a large number of reports from the grassroots level, such as sofas, carpets, tables and chairs have been arranged, power supply lines have been checked several times, and the room temperature has always been maintained at about 22 or 23 degrees. The city leaders also specially advised. The reception staff should be dressed as clean as possible, and the lesbians should wear floral clothes as much as possible. At the same time, in accordance with the spirit of the latest superiors, the Municipal Revolutionary Committee sent people to adjust and update the portraits, quotation boards, slogans, etc. on the main streets, and instructed the construction department to install doors, windows, walls, and toilets on the streets where foreign guests might arrive. Hurry up for a simple painting and finishing.

As a result, the supply of non-staple food for the public has been effectively guaranteed, and the food and agricultural products in the stores have been greatly enriched than before, and the way of selling non-staple foods has undergone a rare change in a very short period of time. For example, fishery companies prohibit the sale of spoiled and flavorful fish, the small hairtail fish that are too poor quality are not allowed to be put on the market, and retail stores prohibit the sale of bad fish mixed in frozen plates.

Since then, the Finance and Trade Group of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee has promoted the experience of "five non-selling" of big meat with hair, blood, mud, soil and pox meat in the Xidan vegetable market, and it is difficult to put the indecent appearance of the meat that people don't like on the board. In the past, non-staple food shops used open-top trucks to transport large meats and bear the dust spilled, and this scene was inevitably observed by foreign guests. On the eve of Nixon's arrival in Beijing, the non-staple food department immediately decided to make a surprise restructure of canvas canopy cars in the form of a combination of leaders, workers, and technicians, and ordered that all more than 80 open meat trucks in the city be covered on 20 February, and stipulated that the covers were not strict and drivers were not allowed to drive.

The hygiene problems of non-staple food restaurants and snack bars that have existed for many years have finally been put on the agenda of the Finance and Trade Group, such as the close proximity of raw fish, raw meat and pastry counters, and the dirty, messy and crowded snack bars, etc., which have been greatly criticized by customers and have not been solved for many years. Under the order of the city, the non-staple food department held an emergency meeting to discuss and decided to quickly make adjustments throughout the city. The most blunt decision was that in order to prevent foreign guests from seeing littered chicken bones and fish bones in the park, the city forced all other restaurants in the park to stop cooking stir-fried dishes, except for the Summer Palace Tingli Restaurant, the Beihai Park Fang Canteen Hall and the Zhongshan Park Laijin Yuxuan.

At the same time, the commercial non-staple food department also focused on the restaurant where Nixon's entourage and reporters lived and the surrounding shops, displayed a complete range of famous and special goods, created a dazzling array of appearances, sold at any time, replenished at any time, and supplied until the dignitaries left Beijing.

Although Tangning is not clear about these situations, he can generally guess, for example, when visiting the Ming Tombs, reporters saw Chinese tourists wearing very warm and bright winter clothes, listening to semiconductor radios, holding cameras to take pictures, or picnics, and sighed: "It seems that the life of the Chinese is still good." ”

Tang Ning sneered: "Hmph, if you can trust me, let's not leave after a while, stay secretly, and promise to give you a different ending." (To be continued.) )