John "Jack" and Dee Kintzle (center) pose with a Chinese delegation that includes Xi Jinping (third from right) during a 1985 visit to the Kintzle's Coggon farm. Xi is now vice president of China and is returning to Iowa this week. (John "Jack" and Dee Kintzle photo)

It took a phone call last week to remind John “Jack” Kintzle that the next leader of China visited his Linn County farm in 1985.

“I’d kind of forgotten about it after 27 years,” said Kintzle, 68.

Kintzle will have a chance to catch up with Xi Jinping at the state banquet for the Chinese delegation this week in Des Moines. The caller from the Governor’s Office who asked for photos of Xi’s visit to Kintzle’s Coggon farm also invited Kintzle and his wife, Dee, to the banquet.

The couple managed to find a few snapshots, likely taken by the group’s interpreter. Kintzle believes the five provincial agricultural officials’ visit was arranged by the Iowa Corngrowers Association, with which Kintzle was active.

Through the interpreter, Kintzle and the delegation discussed his farming practices.

“They were very cordial people,” he said. “They were very interested in Iowa and Iowa corn production. They were so interested in the way we grew corn — the size of our fields and how green it was, and how thick it looked to them.”

Xi and his party stayed with a Muscatine farm family that he’s expected to visit again on this trip. He also met with Branstad, who was the governor then, too.

Xi apparently kept the itinerary from the ’85 trip and made sure to include an Iowa stop on this trip to the United States.

“Apparently, that trip was very memorable to him,” Kintzle said.

The Kintzles retired from farming two years ago and moved to an acreage near Toddville.

“It’s ironic, I guess, how small the world is,” said Kintzle. “I should have bought a lottery ticket. One-point-two billion people? You’d have a better chance with the lottery.”

Related articles

Xi Jinping visit a testament to ties between Iowa, China