Xi vows to send seeds after Trump admires his most beautiful roses

President Trump was struck by the beauty of the roses in the Zhongnanhai Garden as he and Xi Jinping toured the latter’s executive compound in Beijing on Friday.“These are the most beautiful roses anyone’s ever seen! I asked the president, ‘Could you get me some for the Rose Garden?’ and he said yes.I’ve never seen roses so big!” Trump declared during his final day of the historic trip.

Xi, speaking via a translator, was explaining the site’s history and promised to send seeds to Trump after his enthusiastic praise.“We will provide the president with some of our Chinese rose (Rosa chinensis) seeds, as he wants to plant some in the rose garden,” a translator said, according to the press pool report.“I love that.

That’s great,” Trump replied.Xi told Trump that Zhongnanhai, a 1500-acre compound, is “the place where leaders of the party central government of China work and live, including myself.“After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, we have been here, including Chinese leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and so on.”Pictures showed Trump marveling at the former imperial garden — and Xi even urged him to touch the trees — as the tour was underway.“On our way in, we stayed to look at some of the old trees.One of them is 490 years old.

In other places within this compound, there have been trees that have lived to be over 1,000 years old,” Xi said, describing the tour.“The President was interested in learning all about that, including the Chinese roses, which we looked at.And I’ve agreed to send the seeds for these roses to the President as a gift.”Trump was impressed, describing the compound as a “nice place.”Xi invited Trump to the highly-secretive compound, which has been center of Chinese power since the end of the civil war in 1949, as a way of thanking the President for his hospitality at Mar-a-Lago back in 2017 — a visit that took place months into Tr...