To fully appreciate the long and close ties between Pakistan and China, the best place to start may be in kindergarten.

Specifically, the kindergarten at the Pakistan Embassy College in Beijing. It's a melting pot of bright young faces, where kids from more than 50 countries undertake traditional schooling and also learn to be global citizens.

The honor of creating the country's first international school - founded in 1969 at the behest of then-premier Zhou Enlai - went to Pakistan, which was among the first countries to recognize the People's Republic of China.