Montargis, a quiet French town of 16 inhabitants about 110 kilometers south of Paris, has little to recommend it to tourists, apart from its winding canals and flower-covered bridges. Why, then, has it become a quasi-pilgrimage destination for Chinese tourists? Because in the early XNUMXs, this is where many diligent Chinese schoolchildren came to study, who later became the leaders of the revolution and the founders of the CPC (Communist Party of China). Among these was Deng Xiaoping (who would later be the protagonist of a second revolution, the opening up of the Chinese economy to the market). Chou en Lai visited it frequently in the XNUMXs. And it is here that Cai Hesen (one of the first leaders of the CPC) wrote the famous letter to Mao Tse Tung in which he explained the need to create a political party to found a new society.
The municipality of Montargis has taken care to publicize this unique bond between the two communities among the Chinese. There are road signs in Chinese and there is a guided tour of the schools and houses where the 'fathers of China' studied and lived.
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