The Press: China Coverage: Sweet and Sour

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Inevitably, the readers tended to get stories about the low rents in Peking, the prevalence of bicycles, or the fact that stores were peddling pastel-colored Ping Pong balls. There was also copy about the comfortable press quarters at the Hotel of Nationalities where guests were supplied with pots of glue—because Chinese stamps, though colorful, are stickless. When word went round that a number of press visas might be extended well beyond the presidential visit, correspondents were quick to register their eagerness to stay.

Back in Washington Columnist Art Buchwald seemed happy enough to be left behind. Comfortably reflecting on the fact that Chairman Mao writes uplifting verse, Buchwald offered a collection of poems that President Nixon might quote back at him, in Mao's own florid style. To the harried word reporters in Peking, one was especially to the point:

As the sun sets over the

Yellow River And the moon rises in the

China Sea,

I reach to the stars with both hands Knowing I will be on

American TV.