Culture is another bright spot with booming exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and American artists.

"China: The Art of a Nation," a show featuring nearly 300 Chinese artists from eight ensembles spanning all genres of the performing arts, was staged in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. last fall.

The program included an admission-free Millennium Stage show by the Tangshan Shadow Puppet Theater, an impromptu comedy of the National Theater of China, the Kennedy Center debut of the Beijing Dance Theater performing their imaginative work "Haze," a celebration of Chinese symphony and opera, and an outdoor exhibition of sculptures by some of the nation's best-known artists.

"The arts are flourishing in China and this series is an opportunity for Washington audiences, six years later, to reconnect with the country's most creative traditional and contemporary offerings," the Center said on its website.

Sports is a field that helped break the ice in China-U.S. relations more than 40 years ago after the historic table tennis exhibition matches, and continues to play its role in helping move forward bilateral ties.

A ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of "Ping Pong Diplomacy" was held at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing in December 2011. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter attended the ceremony and watched the friendly Ping-Pong matches.

"People-to-people friendliness is the perpetual impetus and important foundation for the development of bilateral ties," Xi said, voicing the hope for closer people-to-people exchanges.