Gov. Bill Walker greets Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan after they landed in Anchorage on Friday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise visit to Alaska on Friday evening, catching a seafood dinner in Anchorage, meeting with Gov. Bill Walker, and taking in a sightseeing moment in Turnagain Arm before returning to the sky again in his Boeing 747 for the journey back to Beijing.
Xi's rest stop in Anchorage broke up his trip home following meetings with President Donald Trump at Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in Florida and an earlier visit to Finland.
The Alaska stop underscored the significance of the Arctic to China's long-term economic interests. For the Alaskans, trade and one of the governor's pet causes — a liquefied natural gas export project aimed at Asian markets — was at the top of the agenda.
An Asian head of state stopping to refuel in Alaska on a return trip from the Lower 48 is not particularly remarkable. But Xi, celebrity first lady Peng Liyuan and more than a dozen officials took the unusual step of motorcading from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to spend several hours in Anchorage.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/04/07/chinese-president-makes-surprise-visit-to-alaska-following-summit-with-trump/
