President Michael D Higgins has arrived in Beijing to begin his week-long state visit to China.
Mr Higgins is being accompanied by his wife Sabina, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan and Finance Minister Michael Noonan.
They were greeted at the airport by Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Chao and Irish Ambassador to China Paul Kavanagh.
Mr Higgins will meet President of China Xi Jinping on Tuesday.
He will also meet with China’s richest man and most prolific philanthropists – Mr Jack Ma, founder of ‘Alibaba’ e-commerce business - and give a keynote speech at Fudan University in Shanghai.
President Higgins is the second Irish president to visit the country, after Mary McAleese visited there in 2003.
The visit is heavily aimed at promoting further trade links with China, which is now the world’s largest economy.
Several senior executives from Enterprise Ireland are also accompanying the President on the trip.
Mr Higgins will return to Ireland on December 15th.
Last month, President Higgins spent three weeks in Africa, visiting Ethiopia, Malawi and South Africa.
