SHANGHAI, China -- Three U.S. Navy warships steamed into Shanghai harbor Friday for the first time in 40 years, sending hundreds of American sailors onto streets packed with large numbers of pro-democracy demonstrators.
As a Chinese Navy band played a spirited welcoming march, the 18,200-ton USS Blue Ridge, command ship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, docked at the Waihong Qiao jetty along the Huangpu River.
'American sailors, I haven't seen American sailors in years,' marveled a 70-year-old Shanghai man, nudging his wife to steal a glance as a group of white-uniformed sailors melted into a sea of Chinese protesters.
The 620-foot flagship was accompanied on the port call by the guided missile frigates USS Sterett and USS Rodney M. Davis, one of the Navy's newest.
The three vessels arrived in Shanghai harbor 40 years to the month after the USS Dixie evacuated American citizens from the northeastern port city of Qingdao as it fell to Mao Tse-tung's communists in May 1949.
The Shanghai port call marks the second to China by U.S. Navy vessels since the founding of communist China in 1949 and is a sign of the growing military contacts between the two nations.
Three U.S. warships called on Qingdao in 1986 and a group of Chinese naval vessels made their first port call to the United States last month in Hawaii.
'This port visit marks another step in the continuing series of events that promote cooperation between the two navies,' said Vice Admiral Henry W. Mauz Jr., commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, during a news conference on the foredeck of the Blue Ridge.
Mauz was greeted at the dock by Nie Rongju, commander of the Chinese Navy's East China Sea Fleet, and other senior officials.
During their three-day visit, the 1,600 sailors and officers will participate in a series of discussions and exchanges with their Chinese counterparts and even face off in soccer and basketball.
Mauz said special instructions had been issued to the crews of the vessels who will take shore leave in a city once known for its rollicking nightlife and where prostitution is known to be returning. But Shanghai is also now rocked by demonstrations.
'So far as demonstrations, we ask them (sailors) to reserve normal courtesy and to remain clear of those areas so as not to get in the way,' he said.
'I think I'd better stroll the other way,' said a sailor as he came upon a rally along the historic waterfront Bund.
The port call came one day after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev stopped in Shanghai for five hours after visiting Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years. The portcall was originally scheduled the same day as Gorbachev's visit but was delayed by a day at the last minute so as not to embarrass him.
'The Chinese government asked us to come the 19th and we did,' said Mauz, claiming only a 'general time frame' had been agreed to earlier.
The port call on the heels of Gorbachev is a clear attempt by China to assure the United States that normalized Sino-Soviet relations do not endanger Sino-American ties, and to signal Moscow that Beijing will continue its policy of seeking ties with the West.
At dockside, a group of more than 20 spouses and children of the disembarking sailors waved as the Blue Ridge tied up.
'You should see the rugs I bought,' read a hand-lettered sign held up by one of the wives. 'Hi honey, I need money,' read another.
The group had traveled to China ahead of the vessels, based in Yokosuka, Japan, for some sight-seeing and shopping.
Crowds of demonstrators packed the Bund and forced the women to walk to the pier, forming a small band of blonde heads that wound through the black-maned Chinese masses.
'It is overwhelming and very interesting,' said Barbara Marino of Pax River, Md. 'This is history being made.'
'We're used to crowds in Japan but there's an electricity in the air in China,' said Marilyn Clemins of Bridgeport, Ill., whose husband, Capt. Archie Clemins, is chief of staff for the Seventh Fleet.
