Youth exchanges, easier travel and the shared history of World War II could help strengthen people-to-people ties between China and the United States, officials, scholars and public diplomacy leaders have said.

They made the point at the 2026 Kuliang Forum in Fuzhou, Fujian province, on Wednesday, a gathering that brought together over 200 guests from both countries with a theme of "Moving Toward Each Other".

Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said this year "has been a big year for China-US relations".

"Under the leadership of our two presidents, let us turn their shared understandings into action, and their handshakes into stronger bonds between our peoples across the Pacific," Xie said in a video speech prerecorded for the event.

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He noted that despite the ups and downs, China-US relations "have kept moving forward", with exchanges and cooperation in trade and other areas delivering practical results.

The quiet but enduring people-to-people connections provide constant momentum for the steady and sustained development of China-US relations, he said.

Located in the suburbs of Fuzhou, Kuliang was once a famous summer retreat for foreign expatriates in China from the 1880s onward, hosting US citizens including doctors, technicians, missionaries and traders alongside thousands of expatriates from other nations.

William N. Brown, a US business studies professor at Xiamen University, returned to the US in 2008 to drive for two weeks across the country to meet these Kuliang families and their descendants.

"What surprised me most was that no matter where they had lived in Fujian, or whatever their occupation, their fondest memories were of Kuliang," Brown said at the event.

He said the family that loved Kuliang the longest were the Caldwells from Tennessee, who lived in Fujian for half a century.

"Harry and Belle Caldwell married on Kuliang in 1902, and though their family summered in many provinces, their son John wrote in China Coast Family, which has an entire Kuliang chapter," Brown said.

"As John made clear, Kuliang was most dear not because of the place but the people. Chinese and foreigners not only lived and worked side by side but also endeared themselves to each other by heroically fighting side by side against the invading Japanese," he added.

Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, witnessed his foundation establishing the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools and Youth Leadership Program in 2022.

The program allows students from cities across China and the US to meet face to face in cooperative events that focus on the two nations' shared legacy of the Flying Tigers and the shared experience of World War II.

"Currently, we have more than 130 participating Chinese primary schools, middle schools, high schools and universities … and in the US we have 48 participating schools and universities across 12 US states," he said.

"Our Chinese and our American students understand that as long as American and Chinese people can put aside their differences, choose to cooperate and seriously work together as … their great-grandparents did more than 80 years ago, there is absolutely nothing that our two people cannot overcome and accomplish together," he said.

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Fred S. Teng, president of the America China Public Affairs Institute, highlighted China's expansion of unilateral visa-free entry for eligible foreign nationals and its 10-day visa-free transit policy, which includes qualifying US travelers.

"Support for overseas bank cards and efforts to simplify hotel stays address difficulties that visitors encounter after arrival. These details matter," he said, adding that the US "also has much to gain from making visitors feel welcome".

Sustained engagement gives both societies a better foundation for managing those disagreements, and "exchanges should reach beyond familiar circles to include vocational students, teachers, small business owners, rural communities and retirees", he said.

Lin Xinyun contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn