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White House Diaries
April
26
1984
April 26, 1984
Thursday, April 26, 1984
We left Agana Naval Air Station at 10 A.M. enroute to Beijing. I had scheduled our meals to correspond to China time as part of our anti jet lag program. We arrived at Capital Airport at 2:05 P.M. China time which was 1:05 A.M. Wash. time. We drove directly to the East Court of the Great Hall of the People. We were greeted by Pres. Li & Mrs. Li. The national anthems were played, there was a 21 gun salute—the 1st ever given to an American Pres. Then we reviewed the troops & were greeted by at least 100 costumed children. We then had a 30 min. meeting with the Pres. after which we were driving to the Diaoyutai guest house—our home for our stay in Beijing. About 7 P.M. we took a 5 min. drive to the Yang Yuan Hall (another bldg. in the guest house compound) for the dinner hosted by Pres. Li. The Pres. is an affable person as is his wife. Here was our 1st go at a 12 course Chinese dinner. We heeded Dick Nixons advice & didn’t ask what things were—we just swallowed them. There were a few items I managed to stir around on my plate & leave. We both did well with our chopsticks.
