During her tour, Peng also met with Nobel Prize laureate Linda Buck, and visited a lab of the Fred Hutch HIV Vaccine Trials Network, where she was briefed by Dr. Julie McElrath on the latest development of the HIV vaccine research.

Peng is in Seattle accompanying Chinese President Xi Jinping for his first state visit to the United States. They arrived here on Tuesday morning and will leave for Washington DC on Thursday.

Xi's choice of Seattle as the first stop of the week-long US tour highlights the great importance Beijing attaches to bilateral economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.