Xi and Putin to dine over Peking duck, Chinese opera and Swan Lake

MOSCOW - Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin will on Wednesday dine on Peking duck and Jinhua ham at a banquet featuring Chinese opera and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

A programme and menu reported by TASS showed guests would be offered an array of cold "zakuski" hors d'oeuvres, prawn soup, beef in bean sauce, Fuzhou noodles, pumpkin pastries, fruits.

A 2009 "Greatwall" Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2016 Changyu Chardonnay will be offered, TASS said.

The programme includes a mixture of Chinese and Russian classics played by the military orchestra of the Chinese Communist Party's People's Liberation Army including a melody of Peking opera, "An unforgettable evening" and the dance of the little swans from Swan Lake.

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge/Reuters