Philippines President Corazon Aquino: Philippine Female President Aquino’s “Root-Seeking” Journey

The Great Wall of China is a grand architecture that displays the vast wisdom of the Chinese nation and is a world cultural heritage. The 20,000 km Great Wall has been standing firm through two thousand years, crouching like a giant dragon amongst the mountains and breathing out the greatness and prodigiousness that not a single visitor can ignore.

On April 15, 1988, then Philippine President Corazon Aquino visited the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing, China.

As Aquino stood in front of the majestic Great Wall, she was deeply attracted by its beauty. Then she climbed up to the third watchtower of Badaling without a break, where she was overwhelmed by the magnificent scenery of the Great Wall in spring.

Aquino responded to the saying “One who fails to reach the Great Wall is not a hero” with a smile, adding that she herself had become a heroin.

Aquino was the first Chinese-Philippine woman to become the president of a nation. Her first stop on her China visit was her ancestral home in Hongjian Village of Fujian Province.

On April 14, 1988, she and her two daughters came to the “Xu Family Temple” in Hongjian Village where she visited the former residence of her great grandfather and met with friends and relatives of the same clan.

Returning to the land where her family originated, the female president was so overjoyed that she said proudly to the crowd in the courtyard: I am not only the president of the Philippines, I am also the daughter of this village, my roots are in China, and I am proud of my Chinese heritage.

On April 16, 1988, Deng Xiaoping and Aquino held a cordial meeting in the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People. The two sides reached a consensus on international issues, believing that if a country wants to move towards prosperity and abundance, it must adhere to the policy of peaceful development and develop friendly and close cooperative relations with Asian countries.

As a cultural icon of China, the Great Wall is not only a symbol of the peaceful spirit of the Chinese nation, but also embodies the common aspiration of China and the Philippines for peace and prosperity.