MAXWELL, Iowa - Sitting by a fireplace in the Kimberley family's living room 40 miles northeast of Des Moines, Vice-President Xi Jinping chatted with the Iowan family about life on their farm.
LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant, the basketball superstar with the Los Angeles Lakers, spent his Thursday afternoon with 10 visiting children from China and their American peers at Gertz-Ressler High School, which since 2010 has had a Mandarin cultural exchange program that Bryant initiated.
Following a nationwide trend, Iowa's universities have seen a rapid surge of enrollment by Chinese students in the past few years.
Vice-President Xi Jinping arrived Wednesday night in Des Moines, capital of the state Iowa, on the second leg of his official visit to the United States.
The second leg of Vice-President Xi Jinping's trip will be Iowa where he visited 27 years ago when he was a Party official in Hebei province.
Former official Chu Yanli was confused - she had never before been asked to receive a civilian guest from the United States.
Iowa's universities have experienced a rapid surge in enrollment by Chinese students in the past few years, officials report.
The assistant principal for foreign languages at the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School had all the data at her fingertips before responding to questions.
China is ready to work with the United States to advance people-to-people exchanges, Education Minister Yuan Guiren said.
“Spanish is the No 1 foreign language offered in the schools across the country, French is second and Chinese is third – but growing exponentially.”
China is ready to work with the United States to advance people-to-people exchange between the two peoples.
Qualified non-immigrant Chinese applicants to US can renew their visas without undergoing another interview if their visas expired less than 48 months ago