Putin and Xi start restricted attendance talks at Great Hall

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Thursday.

The Russian president arrived in China for a two-day state visit and will travel to Beijing and Harbin. Putin will hold restricted attendance talks with Xi in China's capital on Thursday, which will be later followed by an enlarged meeting with the participation of delegations of the two countries.

Elementary school students in Beijing greeted President Vladimir Putin with flowers and Russian and Chinese flags as he arrived at the Great Hall of the People.

In addition to the guard of honor and the orchestra, there were several dozen schoolchildren. They were elementary school students from Beijing's Shi-jia School and Russian children from the Russian Embassy School in China.

The Great Hall of the People is located on the west side of Tiananmen Square. Construction began in October 1958 and was completed in less than a year, in September 1959. It is the venue for congresses of the Communist Party of China and sessions of the country's parliament, the National People's Congress.

Other major official events, conferences and receptions of foreign leaders are also held here. In 2007, the Beijing authorities decided to include the building in the list of protected monuments of modern architecture.