After the Great White Fleet's successful visit to Japan in October 1908, the fleet split up to enable simultaneous port calls to China and the Philippines. Eight battleships called on the southern Chinese port of Amoy. To accommodate the Americans, the Chinese spent $400,000 to build a temporary "Pleasure City" outside of city limits, with pavilions as well as baseball and football fields for the officers and enlisted Sailors. Unfortunately, a typhoon that delayed the Americans' earlier arrival to Japan flattened the temporary structures, forcing the Chinese to expend another $400,000 to rebuild the reception structures. During their stay, the Chinese treated the Americans to music, dance and magic shows that concluded with fireworks so intense that the bursting shells set the Pleasure City afire and left the pavilions again in ruins.
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