US President Donald Trump spent his final morning in Beijing in Zhongnanhai — the highly secretive, tightly guarded leadership compound of China’s ruling Communist Party.

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping strolled through its pristine gardens, with Trump admiring the roses and Xi offering to send seeds before they held talks over tea and lunch.

The central seat of power in China, the venue is sometimes compared to the White House or the Kremlin. Only a handful of American leaders have ever stepped beyond the centuries-old red ochre walls that separate the compound from the rest of the capital.

Security is extremely tight, with access to the compound overseen by an elite military unit responsible for the personal safety of top party leaders. Images of the enclosure are tightly censored and obscured on digital mapping platforms.

Xi himself called attention to the location on Friday, saying he had chosen it as thanks for Trump hosting him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2017. That meeting was the first time the men had met, just a few months after Trump took office in his first term.

Zhongnanhai – which takes its name from two large lakes located within its grounds – “is the place where leaders of the (communist) party and the central government of China work and live, including myself,” Xi told Trump on Friday.”

“After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, we (the communist party) have been here, including Chinese leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and so on,” said Xi.

Garden of emperors

Zhongnanhai was once an imperial garden, used by emperors to relax and enjoy leisure time when they weren’t living and working in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

The gardens’ centuries-long history was a point of pride on Friday, with Xi pointing out the age of various trees in the compound — including a large tree one he said was about 490 years old. “In other places within this compound, there are trees that have lived to be over 1,000 years old,” Xi told Trump.

At one point, Xi encouraged Trump to touch the trees, voicing his appreciation for the garden’s life and history.

Later in their stroll, Trump remarked to Xi: “Nice place. I like it. I could get used to this.”

After China’s imperial era ended in 1912, Zhongnanhai was repurposed as a presidential compound. Decades later, Chairman Mao Zedong established it as the center of political power after the communist victory in China’s civil war.

Back then, Mao deliberately didn’t choose the Forbidden City for his office – wanting to distance the new China from its past failed imperial system. And, working and living in the previous emperor’s palace would have been inconsistent with the Communist Party ideology of “serving the people.”

Since then, Zhongnanhai has undergone significant razing and renovation, including the addition of office buildings, swimming pools, and more. Today, the 1,500-acre site boasts repurposed pavilions and temples, and is synonymous with the party’s elite.

Later during Xi and Trump’s stroll, video from Chinese state media shows, the two took photos in front of a room that was once used for ballroom dancing and to display foreign and Chinese films when the party leadership first moved to the compound.

Former US President Richard Nixon met Mao in Zhongnanhai during his groundbreaking trip in 1972 – the first time an American president had visited China.

Thirty years later, President George W. Bush also entered Zhongnanhai, alongside China’s then-President Jiang Zemin. The last US president to see Zhongnanhai was Barack Obama, who met Xi there in 2014, during which state media reported the two men discussed modern Chinese history.

At the time, Obama was invited to tour the rarely seen Yingtai artificial island, which sits isolated in the middle of a lake in Zhongnanhai. The hidden island holds special historical significance, and was once the place of imprisonment for an emperor near the end of Qing dynasty when he was stripped of power amid a failed coup.

(CNN)

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