Chinese president Xi Jinping will tour Lincoln High School, in Tacoma, suburb of Seattle, during his state visit to the Unites States from Sept. 22 to Sept. 25. The city is the first stop of Xi's US visit. Now let's take a look at what preparation has the school made and what surprise will the school bring us?

Lincoln High School.

Rehearsal

In 1993 when Xi Jinping was Secretary of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, he headed a delegation to visit Tacoma and help Fuzhou and Tacoma to become friendly cities. At present the two cities keep a close exchange in education, culture and sports. 

Founded in 1914, Lincoln High School has some 1,500 students with different cultural backgrounds. It is a multinational and multi-ethnic school.

Students of Lincoln High School.

The school has few Chinese students. To express a warm welcome to president Xi Jinping and better show the cultural style of the school, it invited Chinese language teacher Li Shanshan to help the music teacher Lynn Eisenhower teach her students a Chinese song. 

Chinese language teacher Li Shanshan teaches music teacher Lynn Eisenhower how to pronounce Chinese.

At first, students do not know which distinguished guests will visit. "But they rehearsed very hard". The rehearsal is done twice a day, at 8:30 a.m. and at noon. Only after three days of effort can they sing the song cheerfully and fluently.

Music teacher Lynn Eisenhower and students are in rehearsal.

Eisenhower has 28 years of teaching experience. Before teaching singing to her students, she first analyzes the mood of the song: "After people work hard, they get together and relax, and because tomorrow's life is full of hope, looking at the beautiful countryside and the fruits of the harvest, people cannot help but sing......it's a fast paced song, happy and uplifting, you can imagine in the evening, if the cowboys gather under a big tree next to the town, dancing and singing ...... "So, can you guess what song is it?

Students are in rehearsal.

In the students' eyes Xi is "a leader of a great country", and Peng Liyuan is a "very popular singer." Eisenhower said: "If there is the opportunity to see President Xi, I want to tell him that engagement with China will be the most precious experience in my life."

Mysterious gift

Stepping out of the rehearsal room, Principal Patrick Owen showed the reporter around the school. In the principal's office, Owen shows his collections of small items with Chinese characteristics: a small screen on the table, a facial mask for Beijing Opera, paper cutting tools, as well as several pairs of Double Happiness table tennis rackets.

Double Happiness table tennis rackets.

“I'm very glad about president Xi's visit. He is a very intelligent and courageous leader. He is always concerned about the people-to-people exchange. We have built up a cooperative relations with the high school affiliated to Fuzhou Institute of Education and we welcome Chinese students to exchange with and study at our school,” Owen said.

Patrick Owen shows his paper cutting.

Finally, Owen mysteriously asked reporters: "How tall is president Xi? We want to send him a gift." What is the gift? Dear readers, would you like to guess?