After private tour of the Forbidden City and tea with China’s Xi and Madame Peng
- Trump landed Wednesday in China for meetings with President Xi Jinping
- School children waving American flags greeted him at the airport in Beijing
- President and first lady took in an extra special performance of Peking opera during a grand tour of the Forbidden City put on for him by Xi
- President has touted his close relationship with Xi, calling it ‘outstanding’
- But he says that won’t stop him from getting tough with China over trade
- North Korea is expected to dominate the agenda as it did when pair met in April
- Last year when he visited China, Obama was prevented from using his stairs to deplane Air Force One in a major snub
- Trump didn’t have that problem: Chinese authorities had a rolling staircase tall enough to reach the front door of the plane
By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent In Beijing, China and David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com In Seoul, South Korea
President Donald Trump took in an extra special performance of Peking opera on Wednesday evening in Beijing during a grand tour of the Forbidden City put on for him by China‘s Xi Jinping.
Xi had the production staged in the former imperial palace that is now a museum just for Trump’s visit.
‘Welcome to China! I love you!’ a group of children who were part of the performance told the U.S. president when it was finished.
The president and first lady Melania Trump ended their evening with a dinner in another section of the Forbidden City with the Chinese leader and his wife, Madame Peng Liyuan.
A military honor guard and flag-waving schoolchildren greeted Trump when he arrived Wednesday afternoon in China, the third country in his 12-day Asia tour.
U.S. ambassador to China Terry Branstad met Trump and his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, after Air Force One stopped on the tarmac in Beijing.
Trump deplaned from Air Force One without incident, avoiding the embarrassment Barack Obama suffered a year ago as he landed in China during the annual Group of 20 summit.
Obama was humiliated when he had to exit from the belly of the aircraft because authorities didn’t approve a staircase tall enough for him to walk out of the front exit of the plane.
Chinese officials rolled a large set of stairs to the aircraft’s door on Wednesday.
