President Xi Jinping arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a two-day state visit at the invitation of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Ju Peng / Xinhua

President Xi Jinping arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a two-day state visit at the invitation of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He arrived in Colombo for the first state visit to Sri Lanka by a Chinese head of state in 28 years.

"Upon stepping up at this beautiful land of Sri Lanka, I and my delegation received a warm welcome from the Sri Lanka presidential couple and the Sri Lanka people," Xi said, adding that he was greatly touched.

Xi arrived in Sri Lanka after finishing his visit to the Maldives. The next and the last stop of his South Asia trip is India.

Xi had a retrospect to the traditional friendship between to the countries, and cited mutual helps in fighting against natural disasters in the new century.

The two nations have an empathy over each other's national dream, and the China-Sri Lanka strategic partnership is "witnessing development opportunities in a broad scope", the Chinese leader said.

"I'm looking forward to the talks with Sri Lanka leaders about the friendship and cooperation, mapping out the the blueprint of the future China-Sri Lanka relationship," Xi said.