Confucius once said the palest ink is better than the most retentive memory and as John Key meets and dines with the President of China this week, they'll be no doubt be reflecting that NZ was the first in the world to sign on the dotted line, diplomatically recognising the vast republic.
In the same year, 1972, a former pie maker from Palmy, the rotund Joe Walding became the first Kiwi cabinet minister to visit what was then a closed country ruled by a man, Mao Zedong, rather than by the rule of law.
Few would have imagined then that the most populous nation on earth would today be world's economic powerhouse. The cultural revolution has been replaced by an economic revolution.
Beijing just 20 years ago was a city teaming with bicycles, where the view across Tiananmen Square was crystal clear. Today it's teaming with traffic and thick with pollution which makes it difficult to see with great clarity the massive portrait of Mao if you're standing on the opposite side of the square.