This year marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, which have witnessed long-term friendly relations and wide-ranging cooperation.
The two countries upgraded their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2013, and signed a bilateral free trade agreement as early as in April 2009, which took effect on March 1, 2010.
China is now Peru's biggest trade partner, export market and source of imports in the world, while Peru is China's sixth largest trade partner in Latin America.
Two-way trade between the two countries reached about 7.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, up 10.7 percent year on year, according to Chinese official statistics.
Both China and Peru are ancient civilizations and the two peoples have enjoyed a profound traditional friendship. The two countries have maintained close cultural and educational exchanges. To date, four Confucius Institutes have been established in Peru.
Chinese Ambassador to Peru, Jia Guide, said that both China and Peru are important emerging economies and they are highly complementary on economic front.
"We should make full use of the complementary advantages to strengthen strategic cooperation, vigorously promote investment and upgrade the free trade agreement. We should build our cooperation into a model for emerging economies and for South-South cooperation," Jia said.
To 71-year-old Luis Raul, a Peruvian auto parts dealer who is married to a Chinese woman, President Xi's visit is like a relative coming to his home.
"The visit will bring our two countries even closer. We Peruvian people will receive President Xi with the utmost cordiality, and we will receive Chinese people with open arms!" he said.
THRIVING CHINA-LATIN AMERICA TIES
After Peru, Xi will travel to Chile, the final stop of his current three-nation tour of Latin America.
It is Xi's third visit to Latin America as president since he took office in 2013.
When addressing the Peruvian Congress, Xi is expected to expound on the thriving momentum of the comprehensive cooperative partnership China has forged with Latin America and the Caribbean, and make new proposals on propelling their cooperation.
An intergovernmental forum, known as the China-CELAC Forum, was set up on July 17, 2014 during President Xi's second LatAm visit to steer cooperation between China and the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Chinese official statistics show that the trade volume between China and Latin America rose more than 20-fold during the past decade to reach 236.5 billion dollars in 2015.
Currently, China is the second largest trade partner and third largest investment source country of Latin America, while Latin America is China's seventh largest trade partner.
Xi's state visits to Ecuador, Peru and Chile show that China is keen to further strengthen ties with Latin America, Venezuelan political analyst Vladimir Adrianza said.
China represents both an "excellent" development model for regional countries and an attractive incentive, said Adrianza, who teaches at the Bolivarian Military University of Venezuela in Caracas.
"A growing China-Latin America relationship can help promote multilateral and global development," he said.
