Photos capture Xi's trips to friends in Iowa

President Xi Jinping received a photo frame, "Commemorating 30 Years of Friendship," from his American friends, Eleanor and Thomas Dvorchak of Iowa, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on April 8, 2015.

The frame holds six pictures that show Xi's two visits to the US in 1985 and 2012.

In the spring of 1985, Xi, then Party secretary in Zhengding county, North China's Hebei province, led an agricultural delegation to Muscatine, Iowa. He lived in the house of the Dvorchaks during his stay.

He toured a corn processing plant and farms, attended a birthday party and picnicked on a boat with his hosts on the Mississippi River.

Xi's second visit to Muscatine was in February 2012, when he was vice-president of China. He visited Washington DC, Iowa and Los Angeles during the five-day trip.

He walked in snow and rain to meet his friends amid a tight schedule. He visited a dozen acquaintances he met during his 1985 visit. Xi's old friends, Eleanor and Thomas Dvorchak, traveled more than 1,600 kilometers to meet him.

"You were the first group of Americans I came into contact with," Xi told his Iowa friends. "To me, you are America."