U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad has settled into life as in international diplomat in Beijing. It hasn’t all been about getting caught between U.S. economic interests and those of his longtime friend and tariff-setter, China President Xi Jinping. 

The experience has brought some unexpected cultural perks, like a performance at Branstad’s Beijing ambassador’s residence by a string quintet from the Juilliard School in New York City. “It was a real special event, one that my wife enjoyed a great deal. We all did,” said Branstad, noting that Julliard is establishing a campus in Tianjin, China. It’s Juilliard’s first remote campus.

“This was a good example of cultural exchange between the United States and China,” Branstad said in an telephone interview March 7, Iowa time. (It was March 8 in Beijing.)

Branstad is also excited about the prospect of visiting Tibet. He noted that he won’t be climbing Mount Everest, or anything else. “But we will be at some altitude,” the ambassador noted. It will be his first trip to the country, after an earlier trip was postponed. 

Then there is Branstad’s plan to complete a full Grassley, Far East style. 

“When I was governor of Iowa, I went to every county every year,” an act known as a “full Grassley” because U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley also made the sojourn. “Now I want to get to all the [23] Chinese provinces before I end my time here.”