For years, “Kuliang,” a word uttered by Milton Gardner on his deathbed, had remained a puzzle for his wife, Elizabeth Gardner. She knew that it was a place in China where her husband, an American physics professor, had spent his childhood, but she was unsure of its exact location. Despite this hurdle, following his passing in 1986, Elizabeth sought to honor Milton’s long-held wish to return to his childhood home.
Her quest to find this elusive place led her on several fruitless journeys to China, until a Chinese student in the United States finally decoded the mystery. Kuliang, or “Guling” in Mandarin, was a hillside resort among foreign expatriates in the suburbs of Fuzhou, capital of east China’s Fujian Province. The student penned the American couple’s story and published it in the People’s Daily in April 1992.
The article was noticed by Xi Jinping, then Fuzhou’s Party chief. Touched by the story, Xi decided to help. He asked his subordinates to contact Elizabeth and invite her to Fuzhou, particularly Kuliang, where her husband had spent his childhood for 10 years in the 1900s.
Kuliang’s beautiful landscape and fresh mountain air etched themselves into Milton’s memory. Throughout the decades after returning to the United States in 1911, he longed to revisit this childhood home, but never got the chance. In August 1992, Elizabeth, at the age of 72, finally arrived in Fuzhou.
Xi welcomed Elizabeth on the evening of her arrival. He said he was moved by h.
