PRESIDENT Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan invited U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump to the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, after the U.S. president started his state visit to China in Beijing yesterday.

They walked along the museum’s central axis, also the axial line of Beijing, and visited Taihedian, Zhonghedian and Baohedian, the three main halls of the Forbidden City.

In front of Taihedian, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Xi and Peng took photos with their guests after walking through the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

During the tour of the ancient palace, Xi briefed the visiting couple on the museum’s history, architecture and culture, which received high praise from them.

Xi said he believed Trump’s state visit to China would achieve “positive and important” results.

Taihedian is one of the largest wooden structures in China and the largest hall in the Forbidden City. Emperors of Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties held their enthronements and wedding ceremonies in the hall.

Zhonghedian, the Hall of Central Harmony, is a square building with windows on all four sides. Officials would kowtow to the emperor here before he presided over grand ceremonies in Taihedian. The emperor examined sacrificial writings in Zhonghedian before offering sacrifices to the ancestors, to heaven and to earth.

Baohedian, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, served as the wedding venue for Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty. On every Chinese New Year’s Eve and on the 15th day of the first month on the lunar calendar, emperors held banquets here to entertain vassals, imperial kinsmen and high-ranking ministers.

The presidents and their wives had a brief afternoon tea in the Baoyun Building, also known as the Hall of Embodied Treasures, in the southwestern corner of the Forbidden City.

Xi thanked his guests for their kind reception at the Mar-a-Lago estate when he visited the United States in April and wished them a pleasant time in China.

With a tablet computer, Trump showed Xi and Peng video clips of his granddaughter, Arabella Kushner, singing in mandarin and reciting a part of the “Three-Character Classic” and ancient Chinese poems.

Xi spoke highly of the child’s Chinese skills and said her performance deserves an “A+.”

Arabella is already a child star in China, said Xi, adding that he hoped she would visit China in the future.

Built in 1915, the Baoyun Building is a Western-style architecture in the former imperial compound. It was used to store antiques, but now serves as an exhibition hall for the museum’s history.

The presidents and their wives watched a Peking Opera performance staged at the Belvedere of Pleasant Sounds, the largest opera theater in the Forbidden City initially built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) to entertain the imperial family members.

With a history of more than 200 years, Peking Opera is one of China’s main traditional drama forms and on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. The art combines instrumental music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics.

The presidents and their wives took in pieces from three classic plays, namely Spring Seedlings in the Pear Garden, Monkey King, and The Drunken Beauty.

They took pictures together with the performers after the performance, which drew applause and cheers from the audience.

They attended an exhibition of antiques and watched the repair of some historical relics at the museum’s conservation workshop, known as “the antiques hospital.” The guests were also invited to experience a Chinese painting being mounted on a scroll.

The workshop is the largest cultural heritage conservation center in China. It uses traditional techniques but is equipped with advanced technology.

The presidents made positive comments on the deep cooperation in antiques restoration between the two countries.

Meanwhile, China and the United States signed business deals worth about US$9 billion in Beijing yesterday, according to a senior U.S. official.

“Today’s deals are approximately 9 billion dollars, and much much more will come tomorrow,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said.

Trump arrived in Beijing earlier yesterday for his first state visit to China since he assumed the presidency in January.

He is the first head of state to visit China since the landmark 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China concluded Oct. 24.

(Xinhua)