As baseballs flew across the diamond and cheers echoed through the stands, young players from China and the United States were doing something much bigger than competing. They were continuing a friendship that began more than a century ago.

The Bond with Kuliang: 2026 China-US Youth Baseball Exhibition Games and Sports Festival, taking place in southeast China's Fujian Province from June 29 to July 2, brings together four American youth baseball teams and their Chinese counterparts under the theme "Pitch across Oceans, Catch the Future."

Through baseball, cultural activities and shared experiences, the event offers young people from both countries a chance to discover that, despite speaking different languages, friendship often comes naturally.

The setting made the occasion especially meaningful. Nestled in the hills outside Fuzhou, Kuliang, also known as Guling in Mandarin, has long been a symbol of China-US friendship.

From the early 1900s onward, American families made the mountain retreat their summer home. Many contributed to local communities through education, healthcare and charitable work, forging friendships with Chinese residents that have endured across generations. Today, many of their descendants continue returning to Kuliang, keeping those family stories alive.

Gordon Trimble, a descendant of Lydia Trimble, who helped establish Hwa Nan College in Fuzhou in 1889, said watching young people from China and the United States build friendships in Kuliang reminds him that the bonds his family formed here continue to inspire new generations. He added that it is important for American youth to see "China's fast development" with their own eyes.

This week, young American baseball players arrived in Kuliang not as tourists, but as teammates, classmates and friends. They explored traditional Chinese culture, learned about the history of the town, and stepped onto baseball fields with young Chinese players who shared the same passion for the game.

Speaking via video at Monday's opening ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng described the gathering as a bridge between generations.

"The old friends have returned to Kuliang to keep the friendship alive," Ambassador Xie said, while young people from China and the United States are connecting through sports and celebrate the spirit of youth.

The Ambassador emphasized that the future of China-US relations ultimately belongs to the younger generation.

"The future of China-US relations lies with the youth. It will be shaped by the friendships you build and the steps you take together," Ambassador Xie said.

Drawing inspiration from baseball, the ambassador also expressed three hopes, or the 3Rs, for the young participants: respect, play by the rules, and cheer for runs. The message also reflected broader aspirations for the relationship between the two countries that cooperation grounded in respect and fairness can produce shared success.

Those values are visible throughout the games.

On June 30, the Near West Baseball Club of Virginia faced the Hong Kong Tigers Baseball Team at Pingtan Baseball Park. The players competed fiercely, but when the final out was recorded, the scoreboard quickly became secondary. Players from both teams congratulated one another, celebrating the experience more than the result.

For Brad Schurtz, coach of the Near West Baseball Club of Virginia, that is exactly what youth sports are meant to achieve.

"Sports are something that can connect people even across a language barrier," he said, "We compete in the spirit of cooperation and friendship."

His player, Hadi Houalla, echoed that sentiment. While every athlete wants to play well, he said, what he would remember most would not be the score.

"It will be the faces, the handshakes, the laughter and the meals we shared together," he said. "Those memories will stay with me."

For many of the American visitors, China was no longer simply a place they had read about or seen in the news. It has become a place associated with teammates, conversations and shared experiences.

That belief in people-to-people exchanges has long guided Luca Berrone of Iowa Sister States. Since 2023, he has helped bring more than 1,000 students from Iowa to China. He believes firsthand experiences are the most effective way to overcome misunderstanding.

He said many students return home surprised by what they have discovered about modern China, not because someone told them what to think, but because they experienced it themselves. That is precisely the purpose behind the Kuliang gathering.

"The focus has always been on people," Berrone said. "The most important thing is making connections with other young people, learning from each other, and hopefully maintaining those friendships and growing them in the future."

Jointly organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the General Administration of Sport of China and the Fujian Provincial Government, the event forms part of China's initiative to invite 50,000 young Americans to visit the country over five years for exchange and study programs.

Around 400 guests attended the opening ceremony, including officials from Fujian Province and the US cities of Honolulu and Tacoma, descendants of Americans who contributed to Kuliang about a century ago, young baseball players from China and the United States, and American students who joined the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools and Youth Leadership Program.

The Flying Tigers, American volunteer pilots who flew missions in China during World War II, remain a lasting symbol of China–US friendship, a legacy that continues today in new forms of exchange among young people.

In Kuliang, friendships unfold on baseball diamonds, over shared meals, during cultural workshops and in conversations between young people meeting for the first time.

The baton of friendship passed here more than a century ago has been picked up by another generation—one pitch, one handshake and one new friend at a time.