Town preps for return of Xi

The Dvorchaks, moved to Florida three years ago, but will fly back to Muscatine on Tuesday to meet Xi.

The Muscatine Journal covered Xi and his delegation's trip 27 years ago. [Provided to China Daily]

"I lost track of him after he left," Eleanor, 72, said. "I was surprised when I heard he was coming back. But we had a lot of fun then and I am more than happy to go back to meet him again."

She has prepared a gift for Xi: Obama on the Couch, a book by Justin Frank, a highly regarded expert on psychoanalysis.

"I hope it will help Xi understand the man (US President Barack Obama) better and help them get along, so it will lead to a peaceful and successful relationship between China and the US," she said.

The Dvorchaks visited China in 1987 with a tour group and are hoping to go again. Their son Mark runs a China-related business consulting company in California.

Other folk in Muscatine, including a Chinese language teacher and her students at Muscatine High School, are equally looking forward to the vice-president's visit.

"He is such an important person from such an important country and all of us want to meet him in person," teacher Carol Kula said.

Aric Bower, a senior student who has studied Chinese for four years, added: "I was really amazed when I heard Xi was visiting. I never expected him to come to Muscatine."

For the local newspaper, the Muscatine Journal, it will be the biggest story of the year. Its editor Chris Steinbach has received dozens of calls from the media at home and abroad inquiring about Xi's trip.

"We will see how people from two different countries get together again after almost 30 years," he said. "It is pretty unusual and I have never heard anything like this happening before. It shows the importance of friendship and being open-minded about learning about other people's countries. I think that's pretty cool."

Sweet memories

Writer Mark Twain, once writing for the Journal, remembers Muscatine for its sunsets, while Xi remembers the town for its people.

Iowa Governor Branstad said Xi has kept the itinerary of the 1985 Iowa trip. "When I met him last September in Beijing, he mentioned many people he had met in Muscatine," Branstad said.

The hospitality of its people and its advanced agricultural industries were the reasons the small city was picked to host the Chinese delegation, Lande said.

"Joan and I had been to China in 1984 with the Sister State program and we were so excited about China, that we wanted them to share our homes and learn about our people," she said.

As the delegation was on a budget of $400 for three days, most of the local programs then were run by volunteer hosts such as the Dvorchaks.

Xi stayed in the bedroom of their two sons who were at college at that time.

"There were two beds with Star Wars wallpapers and Star Trek toys - a typical middle-class children's room," Eleanor said.