Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently replied to a letter from Sarah Lande, a friend of his in the U.S. state of Iowa.

In his letter, Xi noted that he visited the beautiful state of Iowa twice, and has forged an indissoluble bond with the city of Muscatine.

The Chinese and American people are both great people, Xi said, adding that their friendship is not only a valuable asset, but also an important foundation for the development of bilateral relations.

The Chinese people are ready to keep on joining the American people in strengthening friendly exchanges, pushing forward mutually beneficial cooperation, and jointly promoting the well-being of the two people, Xi said.

He encouraged Lande and his other old friends in Muscatine to continue sowing the seeds of friendship and making new contributions to the friendship between the two people.

Sarah Lande received Xi, then party secretary of Zhengding County in China's Hebei Province, when he visited the city of Muscatine in 1985. During his visit to the United States in 2012, Xi, then Chinese vice president, went to Lande's home again to meet his old American friends.

Recently, Lande wrote a letter to Xi, extending gratitude for Xi's precious friendship with old friends and expressing the hope that the two countries would continue deepening people-to-people and cultural exchanges and enhance understanding and mutual trust.

With the letter, Lande enclosed a copy of her memoir "'Old Friends': The Xi Jinping-Iowa Story" as a gift.