Tao Hongjian, Counsellor for Education of Chinese Embassy in Belgium,is in an interview with Chinese journalist about the upcoming Belgian students' tour to China. [Photo/CRI]

Ahead of this year's China-EU Leaders' Meeting in Brussels, a group of Belgian middle-school students are preparing for a trip to China next month to learn more about the country.

Half of them will head to Chongqing, while the other half will spend their time in the province of Shandong.

Eline Alifiens is one of the students preparing to make her way to China.

She says she's been studying Mandarin for the last 3-years.

"I started to get interested in Chinese because of the economy and also I found the Chinese language very interesting and it sounds very fine to speak Chinese. I think its a good opportunity to go with this summer camp. So we could know more about the culture and language and other people there."

The tour is part of the "Chinese Bridge Project" organized by the Confucius Institute.

The program is meant to try to give overseas students a better understanding of both the Chinese language and culture.