Liu Guangzhi (Douglas Liu) poses for photography together with Michael Jackson during the superstar's trip to the city of Zhongshan, Guangdong Province on October 23rd, 1987.（From CRI.CN)

点击下载音频

Michael's Only Visit to the Mainland Revealed

Anchor:

Of the millions of fans in China mourning the passing of pop music legend Michael Jackson, few knew that Jackson actually once set foot on the Chinese mainland 22 years ago as a tourist.

Our reporter Zhao Kun spoke over the phone with Michael Jackson's tour guide during that trip, Liu Guangzhi, who now lives in Maryland in the United States.

Reporter:

In October 1987, while Michael Jackson was on vacation in Hong Kong, he took a one-day trip to Guangdong Province. His only visit to the mainland had remained unknown to Chinese people for more than twenty years, except for a few senior staff members at a local travel agency. That day, Mr. Liu Guangzhi was assigned to show Jackson around town.

(Q&A)

After Jackson went back to America, Liu Guangzhi never got to see the superstar again. In 1990, Liu Guangzhi went to the US to study and stayed there to work after graduating. Now he lives with his wife and two kids in the northeastern state of Maryland. Few of his friends and neighbors knew about his meeting with Jackson until the star died last Thursday.

(Q&A)

Over the past two decades, Liu Guangzhi has gone from a young tour guide in China to a middle-aged father and husband on the other side of the ocean. But these huge changes of time and space haven't blurred his memory of the time he spent with Michael Jackson. As mementos of that day, Liu Guangzhi still has photographs of himself with Jackson, a list of names from the tour, and his memories, still fresh in his mind.