President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing by special plane late Sunday night, kicking off his visit to China. Putin is here at the invitation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Guchang, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Deguang and Russian Ambassador to China Igor Rogachev greeted Putin and his entourage at the airport.

Putin's wife Lyudmila Putina and other senior Russian officials arrived aboard the same plane.

According to sources close to Chinese Foreign Ministry, Jiang is to hold official talks with Putin Monday morning.

Putin will also meet with other Chinese leaders, deliver a speech at Peking University and have a tour to the Great Wall during the visit.

Before the visit, Putin said that he looked forward to meeting Chinese leaders in Beijing and hoped the tour to uplift the bilateral relations between the two countries to a new height.

Putin's China tour is an important visit which will inject new impetus to the growth of the Sino-Russian ties, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan told the press before the visit.

Kong said that the Chinese and Russian presidents will summarize the successful experience of China-Russia relations in the past decade, map out the strategic plan guiding the bilateral ties in the future, make clear the prior directions and areas for the two countries' long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation, and exchange views on a broad range of major international issues of common interest.

Putin paid a state visit to China during July 17 and 19, 2000.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2002)