BEIJING: Sienna Stoneking, a freshman at Muscatine High School in the US state of Iowa, could not conceal her excitement when recalling her first trip to China, which she made last month with the encouragement of President Xi Jinping.
“If anyone is thinking of taking a trip there, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and go for it!” she said.
More than 20 students from the high school, including Stoneking, participated in an exchange visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Hebei province from Jan 24 to 30.
After wrapping up their tour of China, the students wrote a letter to Xi, sharing their joy during the trip and thanking him for the invitation. “More than ever now, this trip motivated me to take a deeper dive into the culture, and someday I hope to become fluent (in Mandarin) and take many more trips,” Stoneking said.
Xi replied to the young US visitors on Saturday, the Chinese Lantern Festival, which marked the first full moon of the Year of the Dragon. Xi also sent them New Year cards. In his reply, Xi noted that Lantern Festival has long been an important moment for the Chinese people to express their hope for a better life.
He extended holiday wishes to the teachers and students of the school, and encouraged more US youths to come to China for exchanges and study. The young visitors became the first group of United States high school students to visit China under a program that aims to invite 50,000 young people from the US to go to China in the next five years for exchanges and study. Xi announced the program in San Francisco in November during his visit to the US.
Xi welcomed the school’s students to be part of the program when he replied last month to Sarah Lande, one of his “old friends” from Iowa. Lande had hosted Xi in the Iowa city of Muscatine when Xi first visited the US in 1985 as a county-level official from Hebei province. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
