MUSCATINE, Iowa -Hanging by the door in the old Victorian house that Vice-President Xi Jinping visited in Muscatine, Iowa, on Wednesday is a colorful Chinese folk painting. Xi's host, Sarah Lande, has been a longtime admirer of China.

Although Lande and the small city, once known as the "Pearl of the Mississippi" because of its pearl button manufacturing, are worlds apart from China, for a few hours on Wednesday, the Chinese leader was welcomed with warmth and hospitality.

The vice-president returned to the city 27 years after his first visit when Xi was a young provincial official from Hebei province, Iowa's sister state. Xi's stop in Muscatine, a city of 43,000 that is located about three hours from the capital of Des Moines, was part of a weeklong trip to the US that already included an audience with US President Barack Obama, a meeting with business executives and a luncheon at the State Department. Lande and her husband Roger were one of several families who hosted or spent time with Xi during his 1985 visit.

In total the Muscatine residents who attended the reunion numbered around a dozen.

"The gathering went on very nicely," Lande said after the reunion. Muscatine Mayor Dewayne Hopkins, Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, and Governor Terry Branstad were also in attendance.

During Xi's 1985 visit to Muscatine, he toured a corn processing plant, a hog farm and a small vegetable farm. He slept in a room with cutouts of Star Trek characters on the walls and sampled local dishes of beef and corn. Lande and the Muscatine group, who call themselves the "Old Friends" group, had an opportunity to share some memories when they gathered in the Landes' living room Wednesday night. "He has an amazing memory," said Muscatine resident Mary Jo Stanley, who attended the reunion.

"As we each shared our memories he was bringing up details about that first trip that some of the hosts had even forgotten. He was charming, warm and friendly, and the whole thing was a testimony to what individual-to-individual diplomacy can accomplish."

Xi gave his remarks in a strong and confident voice, said several people who attended the event.

He told the group that all the memories from his first trip were coming back to him, according to a Wall Street Journal reporter who was present at the reunion.

"Coming here is like coming home," Xi said at the reunion. "You can't even imagine what a deep impression I had from my visit 27 years ago to Muscatine because you were the first group of Americans that I came into contact with. My impression of the country came from you. For me, you are America."

His first visit occurred just several years after the normalization of relations between China and the US, and just two years after Hebei and Iowa became sister states, Xi said. "We were so excited and honored to have him here," said Sarah Margaret Minor, Lande's granddaughter.

"He was very well-spoken. He said that he felt like an honorary citizen of Muscatine, and said that he was really thankful to be back. A lot of people have been asking us, 'Why here?' And I think he's just a really smart guy who knows that if you're going to meet the president of America, you should meet the people of America too," Minor said.

Janet Rauch, who gave Xi a tour of her farm on his first trip to Muscatine, described him as "a calm and ambitious man who will do a great job. He is very personable."

Xi received a gift from the Muscatine residents: a book of memories with photos taken during the 1985 trip.

Although Xi's visit to Iowa was framed around his visit with families in Muscatine, the trip is being viewed as a chance to strengthen economic ties between China and the state, the US' largest grower of soybeans.

In 2010 Iowa's exports to China totaled $627 million, an increase from $45 million in 2000.

The media attention has been very exciting, Minor said. "My grandmother has always been happy to go over to China and meet Chinese people and also host them here, and she thinks that it is so important for both our country and for China for people from both places to meet like this," she said.

As reporters gathered in the town over the week to cover the reunion, local residents have reacted with excitement.

Beverly Thumann, owner of a Muscatine gift shop just a few blocks from the Lande family, believes the reunion holds a lesson.

"Probably back in 1985, there was no thought that something that happened here in Muscatine 27 years ago would bring the vice-president of China back to us today," she said

China Daily