The ping could be heard around the world again this summer. But unlike in 1971 when "Ping-Pong diplomacy" signalled the thawing of Sino-American relations, this time it will have everything to do with the game itself.

If things go according to plans, about 10,000 Beijing residents, including foreigners, could be playing table tennis, or ping-pong, on the Tian'anmen Square this June or July.

The gala is being planned as part of the city's sixth sports festival and a prelude to the 2008 Olympics Games, head of Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau Sun Kanglin said on a radio program on Monday.

And according to a senior Tian'anmen Area Administration official, it would be the first non-political event on the world's largest square since Chairman Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China there on October 1, 1949.

"Such an event is unprecedented, but we are going through a special period for the Olympics, so there is a possibility," the official, who didn't want to be named, said.

The sports bureau plans to have more than 1,000 ping-pong tables on the 880-metre-long, 500-metre-wide square.

"I think nothing could be more exciting than playing ping-pong on Tian'anmen Square," Sun was quoted by Star Daily as having said.

Competitors have to advance through community playoffs to quality for the tournament proper, he said.

A sports bureau official confirmed yesterday that the tournament was one of the 15 events being planned for the sports festival between June 23 to July 23.

The plan has just been completed and needs the Tian'anmen Area Administration's approval to be carried out, the official said.

Ping-pong is one of the most popular sports in China, with its athletes having won more than 130 world championship medals since Rong Guotuan won the men's gold at the World Table Tennis Championships in 1959.

The sport is significant in world politics, too. One of the first public hints of thawing Sino-American relations came in April 1971, when the US ping-pong team, in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championships, got a surprise invitation from its Chinese counterpart to visit the PRC. Time magazine termed it "The ping heard around the world."

Four days later, nine players, four officials and the wives of two stepped across a bridge in Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, ushering in an era of "Ping-Pong diplomacy".

They became the first group of Americans to enter the mainland since 1949.

(China Daily January 24, 2007)