Podcast
President Hu comes to Central Asia with gift of books
Updated: 2009-12-14 13:21
 |
Large Medium Small |
Wearing the typical southern Chinese tie-dyedclothes and big red flowers in their hair, six girls sang the traditional Chinese song What a Beautiful Jasmine to Chinese President Hu Jintao as they waved traditional Chinese fans painted in classical red.
The performance was given when the Chinese president handed a list of books, mainly on Chinese culture and philosophy, to the Astana-based Confucius Institute cosponsored by the Kazakhstan Eurasian University and China's Xi'an International Studies University on Saturday.
China and its Central Asian neighbors have many cultural and personnel exchanges as well as trade and economic cooperation. Hu, on his visits to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan over the weekend, gave thousands of books to those learning Chinese in the two countries.
Hu also announced the doubling of the number of students from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan studying in China, which means that 100 Kazakh students and 90 Turkmen students will be able to study in China with China state-funded scholarship every year beginning in 2010.
More than 500 students have graduated from the institute since it was set up in December 2007, with courses mainly about Chinese culture and language.
（中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Helen 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.
