Chinese - American Skating Star Michelle Kwan (关颖珊) Touring China

America's first "Public Diplomacy Envoy" and five-time world champion Michelle Kwan (关颖珊) visited Dandelion School specially for migrant children yesterday in Beijing.

Kwan has won Olympic silver and bronze. She underwent right hip surgery five months ago and will skip this season.

Kwan got the diplomat job last year. Sitting at a White House dinner with Chinese President Hu Jintao, U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Kwan told Rice she was studying political science at the University of Denver.

Rice, who earned her Ph.D. at Denver, later made her an offer.

"I have represented the United States for 12 years in many competitions, and I feel that I can do the same thing as a diplomat," Kwan said. "It has sort of prepared me for this job."

The daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong and southern China, the 26-year-old Kwan was born in California. She speaks Cantonese - a dialect used in southern China but one all but unintelligible in the north, where Mandarin, the national language, is common. So Kwan used mostly English and a bit of what she called "Chinglish" to communicate.

Kwan also will visit the southern city of Guangzhou and Hong Kong before returning home.