Nine Chinese scholars in American studies received a warm welcome at former ambassador Julia Chang Bloch's residence at Dupont Circle in Washington on Wednesday.

The seven women and two men, all under 35, are fellows of the Chinese Leaders in American Studies (CLAS) Summer Institute on American Social History and Policy at the Meridian International Center in Washington.

The CLAS Summer Institute is a three-week program of the US-China Education Trust (USCET), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Chinese academics' understanding of American history, politics and culture.

"As we welcome these exceptional young scholars to the US, we are excited to be partnering with Peking University to nurture the next generation of China's America experts, to build mutual understanding and trust in the most important bilateral relationship in the world today," said Bloch, president of USCET.

"What I found interesting about China is the more I visit China, the less I know about China. There is much to know about it," said US Congressman Rick Larsen of Washington state, who is also the co-chair of US-China Working Group in Congress.

"The relationship sometimes between United States and China is as rocky as the Chinese stock market; it goes up and down a lot, but we must keep going at our relationship, and part of it is to recognize the importance of exchanges, the people-to-people exchanges, the professors and lecture exchanges," Larsen said.

In Bloch's view, the relationship between China and the US is subtle and complicated because they are so different in culture and history. So helping the two countries understand each other is vital.

The CLAS fellows contained scholars specializing in various fields about America.

"I am honored to bring our Chinese leaders, American fellows here; they come from the universities of Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Shandong and Jilin provinces. They will be China's next generations of American experts," Bloch said.

"Many of us in the group [looked at it] as an opportunity for scientific research, to get acquainted with more professors, to build up more contacts and relations, and even to invite American experts to give lectures to our students. We can truly improve ourselves through the study tour. Whereas most young people in China, their knowledge of the US comes from movies and TV series," said Juebin Chen, one of the fellows who is an assistant professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

"I think this trip could change the way I'm thinking about problems," Chen said. "In this trip, I am going to learn things from practice and experience, not from books."

CLAS fellows will spend three weeks around Washington to study American history and society, including civil rights, racial issues, social welfare, government and politics.

Andi Zhang in Washington contributed to this story.