DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — When China's vice president comes to the United States next week, he'll clear time between stops in Washington and California to visit Iowa.

Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to become China's president in October, asked for a Wednesday stop in Des Moines and Muscatine, a Mississippi River town in southeast Iowa.

Xi, 58, has just one goal for his Muscatine visit — to reconnect with the friends he made there 27 years ago as a young Communist Party leader of Hebei Province, an agriculture-rich region in northern China.

"He was professional, dignified, and I think he was grateful that he was warmly received and had kind words to say about the people who greeted him," said Sarah Lande, who is organizing the visit at the request of Gov. Terry Branstad.

Lande, 73, and her husband Roger, 74, were among several families to greet Xi in 1985 when he visited as part of an Iowa Sister State program that encouraged a stronger understanding between Iowa and Hebei Province. Xi stayed overnight in Muscatine with another couple and apparently has fond memories of his stay.

Sarah Lande said Xi requested that only the people he met during the previous visit be invited. Lande was executive director of Iowa's Sister State program for 12 years and has traveled to 29 countries, including four visits to China.

Branstad and Xi discussed the possibility for a return visit to Iowa during the governor's trade mission in September. Branstad called Lande to see if she could help coordinate. She is retired, but is an active community volunteer, and readily took the assignment to help.

Her husband, an attorney, was appointed director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources by Branstad in 2010.

Xi's Muscatine visit is expected to last just an hour.

"We're going to have just a little toast with tea or champagne," Sarah Lande said. She is arranging a small gathering of about 16 people he met during his first visit. "I think maybe each one of the old friends will get to share a memory or ask a question or something like that."

She said the visit will focus on continuing to foster a good relationship between China and the United States using the "soft power" of friendship.

Branstad said Monday that Xi's visit is the most important event so far in his current term as governor. He equated it to both the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II and the 1959 Iowa farm stop by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

"The fact that he's going to be the leader of China, he obviously has a very friendly a positive feeling about Iowa. It could be a tremendous asset for us going forward," Branstad said.

After Muscatine, Xi will fly to Des Moines for a reception with elected officials and top business leaders and a dinner hosted by Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds.