BEIJING - For Anastasia Mikhaylets, a 15-year-old Russian girl who is on her first visit to China, the country's colors are red and green.

"Red is for the passionate Chinese and green is for the city's trees and gardens," she told China Daily at Beijing No 80 High School on Tuesday.

The girl has been learning Chinese for a year, and her dream is to get a job as a translator in China when she is older.

"I speak Chinese better than English, and I have learned a dance from a Chinese friend today," she said.

She is among 450 teenagers and 60 teachers from Russia who arrived in Beijing on July 30 for a 12-day summer camp as guests of President Hu Jintao.

Hu made the invitation during his trip to Russia in 2009.

The students' trip is the second part of the program, which invites about 1,000 Russian teenagers to visit China over two consecutive years.

In 2010, 500 Russian teenagers spent their summer camp in China from July 31 to Aug 9.

The summer camp reciprocates Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's hosting of 1,500 Chinese students from regions devastated by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

The Russian delegation is headed by Valerie Marzoev, director of the "Ocean" All-Russia Children's Care Center in Vladivostok, where 945 Chinese youngsters affected by the devastating earthquake attended the program in 2009.

To Anastasia Trotsenko, a Russian teacher in this year's delegation, Chinese students are "cute" and "gentle", and the Russian children are very curious and keen to communicate with their Chinese peers during the camping trip.

"My students were too excited to sleep last night after an amazing Chinese kungfu show," she told China Daily.

However, the lack of sleep did not affect the Russian students' passion to practice their dancing skills with Chinese students on Tuesday morning at the Beijing No 80 High School.

Later, the Russian students also played basketball with Chinese students, and learned how to make Chinese handicrafts.

"I am very surprised by the passion of Chinese students and teachers," the vice-director of the Russian delegation, Natalia Seminyuda, told China Daily. "The Chinese youngsters are happy and smart."

After Beijing, the Russian teenagers will travel to the coastal cities of Shanghai and Dalian.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/03/2011 page7)