Why is China's Xi Jinping going to Iowa?

In 1985, Xi stayed with the Dvorchaks, their 15-year-old daughter, and their dog in a four-bedroom, three-bath ranch home. The Star Trek-themed room had been left unchanged after the couple's sons went to college.

Eleanor Dvorchak, now 72, recalled a handsome 31-year-old man who was calm and intensely focused on learning as much as possible during his brief trip. He kept busy until late each day, so all he needed when he returned in the evening was peace and quiet, she said.

"My job was to provide him with breakfast and a quiet place for him to relax and think, to give him time to pull his thoughts together for the next day," she said. "It was just a pleasure to have him in our home. He was very undemanding."

The language barrier made conversation difficult, but Xi was interested in touring the home and seemed impressed with the two-car garage and large concrete driveway that had a basketball hoop, she said.

She speculated that Xi wanted to return because volunteers in Muscatine were generous with their time as they showed the Chinese delegation their farms and the community, and invited them into their homes.

Cynthia Maeglin, who hosted two men who accompanied Xi in 1985, said she and her husband were accustomed to inviting overseas guests into their home since they hosted exchange students after studying abroad in high school.

Xi and the Chinese guests would have breakfast, then leave for the day to visit farms and businesses. The men got an up-close look at small-town life, and Maeglin believes it stuck with them.

"I think from just being in our home, they could see how we lived," Maeglin said. "At the time, our youngest son was still living at home. They could see how our family life was."

Sarah Lande, whose family hosted a dinner during that visit, is organizing the reunion at the request of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. She plans to gather about 16 people for tea or champagne to reminisce.

After the Muscatine visit, Xi is to fly to Des Moines for a reception with political and business leaders and a dinner hosted by Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds. The dinner menu will be all Iowa grown products, including bacon, lettuce and tomatoe canapes, smoked trout with Midwest cranberry compote, medallions of Eden Farms bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin and Angus beef tenderloin and white cheddar-stuffed, twice-baked potatoes.

On Thursday, Xi was scheduled to attend the first U.S.-China Agriculture Symposium in Des Moines. China's minister of agriculture, Han Changfu, was also expected to attend.

Branstad compares the significance of Xi's visit to the 1979 Iowa visit of Pope John Paul II and the 1959 farm stop by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

"The fact that he's going to be the leader of China, he obviously has a very friendly and positive feeling about Iowa," Brandstad said. "It could be a tremendous asset for us going forward."

RELATED: How well do you know China? A quiz

Previous

1 | 2