Cheering children - check. Military honour guard – check. Cannon fire and marching band - check.
Vladimir Putin's welcome outside the Great Hall of the People was a near mirror image of the reception for Donald Trump last week.
Two high-stakes presidential visits, just days apart, are exactly the image Xi Jinping wants to project to the world: talking to everyone, tied to no one.
For China, these visits are proof that because of its massive economy and newfound diplomatic clout, all roads now lead to Beijing.
The new era of world affairs is less centered around the West, says Samir Puri from Kings College London.
There is a lot of latent power that China has on the world stage; it's not necessarily using it directly to settle conflicts. Instead, China's style is to utilize its stature in a more gradual sense.
The optics were strikingly similar - Xi confident in the spotlight as he played host. However, the politics driving the two visits were very different.
Putin, who has visited China over 20 times, appears to have a close personal relationship with Xi. Yet, the ongoing war in Ukraine and Western sanctions have left him reliant on Beijing, which is now Russia's top trading partner and its biggest consumer of oil and gas.
It has been an unequal partnership for some time, reinforced by recent discussions ending with more than 20 agreements on trade and technology, but lacking progress on the stalled Russian gas pipeline Putin has long pushed for. The lengthy joint statement yielded no major breakthroughs.
Both China and Russia need each other, but Russia clearly needs China more than before on the global stage, adds Dr. Zheng Runyu from the Centre for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai.
Given today's international environment, deep cooperation with China is extremely important for Russia in dealing with many of its current challenges.
The Chinese leader seemed to have a strong hand negotiating with the US president too. Stronger trade relationships with the rest of the world and China's dominance in rare earth minerals and advanced manufacturing have given him leverage, particularly in light of Trump's unpredictability.
And in talks with both Trump and Putin, Xi addressed leaders embroiled in lengthy and costly conflicts. While the US struggles with a prolonged crisis in the Middle East that has affected Trump's approval ratings, Putin's invasion of Ukraine continues to weigh heavily on Russia.
Ultimately, these high-level meetings underscore a shifting dynamic where China now possesses the leverage to dictate terms on the global stage, moving closer to establishing itself as a diplomatic heavyweight.
