NCUSCR's board delegation meeting with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (sixth left in the front row) in 1973. Berris is first right in the second row. [Photo provided to China Daily]

As a group photo was being taken, Zhou turned to her and said: "I understand that Miss Berris speaks Chinese. I wonder if she could translate for us the characters on the screen that we are standing in front of."

Seized by nervousness, Berris was almost certain that she would embarrass herself until she looked back and realized, with great relief, that the words were exactly those she had been taught by one of her Chinese hosts at a welcoming dinner the previous night.

"It couldn't be a pure coincidence," she says.

Three years later in July 1976, Berris was staying with an American congressional staff delegation at the Beijing Hotel when an earthquake struck the city of Tangshan about 200 kilometers away. Today, the number of deaths is estimated at more than 243,000.

"I was shaken out of sleep at around 2 am and thought that the Russian Bear was attacking," she says, referring to the acrimonious relationship between China and Russia at the time.

"Eventually, we all ran down the 18 flights of steps and went out onto the sidewalk, where it was clear that one of the balconies of the hotel had partly cracked and fallen."

"After the earthquake, for at least a year, a lot of people in Beijing moved from their damaged quarters onto the street, where they set up tents and shacks."