Barack Obama concludes China visit

The visit has set in place concrete agreements which will determine the future of bilateral relations. His trip also included events that helped form his own vision about the country, highlighted by a last stop at the Great Wall.

Like several of his predecessors, President Obama chose to climb the Great Wall. Each step up the ancient wonder, reinforced his impressions upon a country with a long history and dynamic culture. He learned the same thing while touring the Palace Museum on Tuesday. Also known as the Forbidden City, it was the home of 24 emperors over a span of almost 500 years.

The US President finished his trip just how it started, a non-political event away from the Chinese capital. In Shanghai, a city deeply ingrained in the history of bilateral ties, Obama held a town-hall style meeting with Chinese university students. The dialogue of questions and answers was a warm up to his talks in Beijing.

It was the third formal meeting between President Hu Jintao and Barack Obama. Both represent the interests of the world's largest developing and developed nations.

China and the US have enjoyed success in their cooperation over the past thirty years. Bilateral ties got off to a positive start after the US President took office. And now, they are finding more common ground.

President Hu said, "The China-US relationship is very important. It's a shared responsibility for both China and the US to preserve and promote the relationship. We are willing to work with the US to ensure the steady, sound and sustained growth of this relationship, to the greater benefit of the two peoples, and people throughout the world."

US President Obama said, "Our relationship going forward will not be without disagreement or difficulties. But because of the cooperation between the US and China, we are more prosperous and secure, we have seen what's possible .... mutual respect. We look forward to deepening that engagement and understanding in the months and years to come.

The two leaders issued a joint statement on Tuesday. In it, they agreed to deepen high-level exchanges, to work closely for a complete and stable recovery of the world economy, and to stay committed to resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.