SPECIAL SECTION: A Guide to Nixon's China Journey

Great plans are being made.

A bridge will fly to join the north

and south, A deep chasm becomes a

thoroughfare; The mountain goddess, if she still

is there, Will be startled to find her world

so changed.

—Mao Tse-tung

A) Richard Nixon prepares to fly to Peking this week, he is reading, among other things, some of the writings of the remarkable poet-politician who will be his host. The haunting, prophetic verse quoted above, written in 1956, is included along with the eight thick black volumes of political and cultural notes that were put together by Henry Kissinger to brief the President for his historic mission to China. A year ago, the very idea that Nixon, or any other U.S. Chief Executive, would visit China on a good-will mission would have seemed absurd. But not only the mountain goddess is startled these days by how the world has changed.

The Peking summit fairly shimmers with the kind of historic aura that Richard Nixon dearly treasures—the leader of the world's most powerful nation meeting with the ruler of the most populous. Never, perhaps, have two men who so dramatically epitomize the conflicting forces of modern history ever sat as equals at one negotiating table: Mao, the self-styled heir of Marx and Lenin and revolutionary leader of China's revolutionary masses; Nixon, elected spokesman of the world's richest, most advanced capitalist society and once the archetypal Cold Warrior. Even if nothing happens at their meeting—and no dramatic breakthrough is in sight—the reopening of a U.S.-China dialogue has fundamentally altered the power structure of the globe.

Prime Time. The ceremonial portions of the seven-day visit will be televised live by satellite to a worldwide audience that may match or exceed the estimated 600 million who saw man's first steps on the moon. The President and Mrs. Nixon will depart Washington on the morning of February 17. After spending two nights in Hawaii and one in Guam (and losing a day by crossing the International Date Line), they should reach Peking on February 21, at 11:30 a.m. That is 10:30 in the evening Eastern Standard Time, an excellent hour for a presidential candidate seeking re-election to make a television appearance. He will be accompanied by an official party of 13, including the ubiquitous Kissinger, Secretary of State William Rogers, and Presidential Assistant H.R. Haldeman, as well as 87 American newsmen and TV technicians (see THE PRESS). He will spend five days in Peking, where he will be accorded a full state welcome. He will then fly aboard a Chinese aircraft to Hangchow for a day's sightseeing before departing on February 27 from Shanghai for Alaska and Washington.

Although many details of the trip are still secret, it is likely that in Peking the President and Mrs. Nixon will stay in a government guest house near the Jade Abyss Pool on the capital's western outskirts. On the evening of their arrival, there may well be a state banquet in the Great Hall of the People, the all-purpose government entertainment center. Before departing for Hangchow, the President, it is thought, will repay his hosts with a banquet, also in the Great Hall. The Chinese will supply the food, but Nixon is carrying in American champagne for the occasion.