Chinese engineer set to reunite with Putin 26 years after chance Beihai Park encounter

Thirty-eight-year-old construction engineer Peng Pai sent a lighthearted message to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of an upcoming reunion, the plans for which were reported by Russia's TASS news agency. Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night for a state visit.

"Dear President Putin, you still look the same," Peng said in an interview with Russia Today. "But I have changed from a little boy into a middle-aged man with a bigger belly."

In the summer of 2000, Peng and his family visited the Chinese capital from Hunan province. On July 19, while sitting on the stone balustrades along the lake in Beihai Park, a "foreign uncle" approached him from the crowd, lifted him up, and kissed his forehead.

It was Putin. During his first official visit to China as the Russian president, Putin made an unplanned trip to the park. After boating on the lake, he greeted the boy by the lakeside and took a picture with him.

"It was a completely spontaneous moment," Peng recalled. "In my memory, he was just a kind, gentle uncle."

At the age of 12, Peng didn't fully grasp the meaning of the encounter, but he never forgot it. "This special experience made me more curious about President Putin and his country," he said.

That curiosity eventually took him across continents. After finishing high school, Peng decided to learn more about Russia by applying to one of its universities. From 2007 to 2013, he studied bridge and tunnel engineering at the Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University, earning bachelor's and master's degrees.

"During the seven years in Moscow, I gained a deeper understanding of Russia's vast territory, its rich history, and culture," Peng said.

The Russian teachers and fellow students he met along the way left a lasting impression. "They were very kind to international students," he recalled.

After graduation, Peng returned home and joined Hunan Construction Investment Group, a State-owned enterprise based in Changsha, with projects in more than 60 countries. Although he has not returned to Russia, he continues to follow China-Russia bilateral relations with interest.

"High-level exchanges between the two sides have been frequent in recent years," he said, "and interactions are active in many fields, including at the grassroots and online levels."

As a bridge engineer, he hopes to see more infrastructure cooperation between the two countries. "Both sides have strengths that can complement each other for mutual benefit."

Now a father of two young children, Peng hopes to take his family to Moscow one day to walk through his old university campus and share with his children everything he knows about the country and its people.