When Ambassador to China Terry Branstad appeared at a gathering of various China-related groups at the Des Moines Embassy Club Dec. 22, several audience members asked him about life in Beijing. Some of this thoughts: 

• The traffic is horrendous. “You’ve got to be a pretty aggressive driver if you are going to survive. They drive in every configuration possible. There are surprisingly few accidents, though, maybe because of the low speeds.” 

• The air quality is sketchy. “They are moving to shifting residential from coal to natural gas, and that should help.”

• “They have every imaginable luxury car in the world. And the bicycles are back. But they are rentals. And you can tell which company a bike is from by the color. They rent them with their cell phones. The Chinese skipped credit cards and went straight from cash to paying with their phones.”

• The Chinese treat him very well, he thinks because of his long friendship with President Xi Jinping and the reception Chinese visitors get in Iowa. 

• The Chinese are eager to visit the United States. “We process 4,000 visas a day in Beijing, and there are five consulates, too. (The tie between China and the United States) is the most important bilateral relationship in the world.”

• It can get hot. “When Gov. (Kim) Reynolds brought a delegation, they went to Shanghai the day the heat set a record.” It was 110 degrees.

• China isn’t the same country Branstad visited decades ago. “China has changed a lot. More people beat poverty in the last three decades than anywhere else. The infrastructure is improving, including the airports.”

• The Chinese are serious about buying Iowa ethanol. “Their goal is to have 10 percent of the fuel be ethanol by 2020. We hope it goes higher after that.”