The Cosmos players were on the trip of a lifetime - that included visits to Venezuela, Japan and India - and they savoured every weird and wonderful moment.
"Our trip to China was almost a surreal experience," Shep Messing, then the Cosmos goalkeeper and now a broadcaster and club ambassador, told the Telegraph. "The China of 1977 had a billion people dressed in green and a billion dressed in grey and 80,000 people literally drove their black bicycles to the game [in Peking].
"I just happened to be along for the ride as the goalkeeper - I was a long curly-haired hippy kid from New York wearing a yellow tie-dye T-shirt with flowers on it - but this was all the global appeal of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer and all the other stars.
"When you walked out the hotel people would stare at you and follow you, like it was something you were had never seen before.
"Franz and Pele were like kids, they couldn't believe the impact we had on a country like China."
Messing's overriding memory of the game in Peking were the haunting moments of total silence among the 80,000-capacity crowd.
"The game was very hard to describe," he said. "It was absolutely eerie, it was quiet like you could hear a pin drop and then the loudspeaker would come on and the crowd would erupt - it was like the people were being told when they could applaud."
Equally eye-opening was a post-match trip to a local hospital after Cosmos defender Bobby Smith dislocated his shoulder during the game.
"A couple of his team-mates, myself included, went with Smitty, and it was horrifying to see. It was Chinese medicine, they were using acupuncture and acupressure and Smitty just wanted to get out of there and get a beer."
Off-the-field, the Cosmos were treated like royalty with motor parades, five-star hotels and state banquets with the Chinese political leaders.
"The state dinners were great ceremonial events. I remember having 13 different courses and after every course there was a toast. There was pomp and circumstance. It was the trip of a lifetime for all of us.
"I can't imagine what it's like being Pele - but even he was so excited by it."
He adds: "I'm a New Yorker and I was expecting Chinese food but it was very different Chinese food that you get over there."
One incident, though, shook the group to its core. Despite travelling with huge security, Jadranko Topic, the Cosmos's Yugoslav striker, was injured in a knife attack when the team were walking from one hotel to another while with, of all people, the actress Stefanie Powers, who was making a film there with William Holden.
"Crimes against foreigners were dealt with severely and there was some talk - though never confirmed - that the perpetrator was executed," says Messing.
For Messing, the Cosmos's trip to China - just as will be the case with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers' forthcoming tour - shows soccer at its very best.
"In my experience there are only two things that transcend politics, racial boundaries, religious and socio-economic boundaries are those are soccer and music," he says.
"We know all the bad things about soccer, with everything that has happened with Fifa in the past year, but trips like the one to China - and the Cosmos's trip to Cuba last year and the Strikers themselves going to China - this is the best of the sport. The ability to transcend all those boundaries."
Thanks to former Cosmos trainer Arnold Trachtenberg for sending me the main image. Other images via nasljerseys.com
- Telegraph