Chinese leader visits Stalin's summer house in Sochi

Chinese leader Jiang Zemin has visited Stalin's summer house in Sochi, a large Russian resort city on the Black sea, where the Soviet leader met Mao Dzedong in autumn 1947.

The Chinese leader made a sightseeing tour of Sochi. According to him, he has heard much of Russia's best resort and made up his mind to visit it on his way from St. Petersburg, the venue of the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

The Chairman of the People's Republic of China made an entry into the book of Honoured Guests to the museum in Stalin's summer house: "During this visit to Sochi we had many opportunities to see that Russians have warm feelings towards their Chinese counterparts and strive to boost relations between the two countries." A special sightseeing programme was offered for the Chinese leader and his delegation which took into account all his wishes. Thus, apart from Stalin's summer house, the delegation visited the Tea Houses ravine near the spa village of Dagomys. The guests were given an insight into Russian tea growing tradition /tea was brought to Russia from China in the early 15th/.