The mission of “pickleball diplomacy” continues for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). After students went to China in the spring, Chinese students visited Montgomery County, including a visit to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda on Tuesday.
46 students and nine adults traveled to the U.S. from the Nanshan school district in Shenzhen, which is one of the cities in China that the MCPS pickleball delegation visited back in April. About 30 MCPS students went overseas in April for a 12-day, 3-city pickleball tour in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing.
Over Labor Day weekend into Tuesday, MCPS and Chinese students went sightseeing together in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. Earlier in the day on Tuesday, they went on a tour of the U.S. Capitol. After visiting Whitman High School, the students headed to Pike & Rose for dinner and fun at Pinstripes.
“Pickleball diplomacy” mirrors the phrase “ping-pong diplomacy,” which describes the exchange of table tennis players between the U.S. and China in the 1970s.
“And we believe that through those positive relationships we build bonds… and in one little way, build relations between our two countries,” said MCPS Systemwide Athletics Director Dr. Jeffrey Sullivan on Tuesday.
