President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping spent several hours together at a luxury retreat near San Francisco on Wednesday.

Here are some of the more memorable quotes that came out of the first tete-a-tete for a year.

"Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed."

Xi says there is space for both the United States and China, as competition heats up for dominance in the 21st century.

"Well look he is," Biden said when a reporter asked if he would still call the Chinese leader a dictator, possibly trashing weeks of careful preparation and mood setting.

"I mean he's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who's running a country, a communist country, that's based on a form of government totally different than ours."

"He and I agreed that each one of us could pick up the phone, call directly, and will be heard immediately."

After years in which the two sides have not done a great deal of chatting, Biden says that communication is going to get a lot easier.

"We've known each other for a long time," Biden said of Xi, a man he spent hours with when they were both vice presidents of their respective countries.

"We haven't always agreed, which is not a surprise to anyone, but our meetings have always been candid and straightforward and useful."

Biden asked Xi to pass on birthday wishes to Peng Liyuan, a noted soprano and the Chinese president's wife of more than three decades.

Biden was on top of things because he turns 81 on November 20, the same day Peng celebrates her 61st birthday.

An embarrassed Xi said he'd been a bit busy with work, and the date had passed him by, but thanked the US president for reminding him, an official said.