On July 25, in the city of Changsha (China), there was held the 6th Russian-Chinese Youth Forum in the “Volga-Yangtze” format. The Russian delegation consisted of more than 130 representatives of students of higher educational institutions of the Volga Federal District. Those were the best students, leaders of public youth movements, talented actors and athletes.
The Chuvash Republic was represented by 9 people at the forum. They were the second-year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Yakovlev University, Rina Abeeva and Maria Bogdanova.
Rina Abeeva: “We tend to have rather brief knowledge about China. We know that Chinese people are very hardworking, they like green tea, eat a lot of rice, and that the Chinese language is one of the most difficult languages in the world ...
Before the trip to China, I used to think pretty the same about this mysterious and beautiful country. But everything had changed when I saw it with my own eyes.
After a long flight, we finally arrived in the city of Changsha. Leaving the airport building, I could feel the warm southern air, and see tall luminous buildings and a large number of people. China surprised me with its hospitality, we were given a very warm welcome.
The most important thing on this forum is friendship. I was lucky enough to meet very interesting people both from Russian and China. In 10 days we managed to visit many universities, attend interesting lectures, see a large number of attractions, ride high-speed trains, see robots and nano-technologies in action, learn a lot about the culture of China and tell about the culture of our country and Chuvashia . I really hope that the warm relations between our countries will not be overshadowed by any conflicts.
I would like to thank the Chuvash delegation. Margarita Valentinovna, curator of our delegation, was very patient and caring. I want to say many thanks to Yakovlev University for the chance to visit China.
During the trip I was completely delighted with the nature of this great country. China inspired me, I literally fell in love with it! Everything written above is a drop in the sea of emotions that I experienced. If there is an opportunity to go to China, then never miss it! As they say: “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!”

For ten days the Russian students visited local universities, high-tech enterprises, attended the lectures delivered by the leading Chinese scientists, learned the history and traditional national culture of China and Hunan province (tea ceremony, local opera, folk musical instrument, paper clipping, knitting a Chinese knot) The forum participants visited the well-known Chinese companies (Zoomlon, BROAD), railway safety laboratories under the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, as well as the cultural attractions (Mao Zedong’s birthplace, Liu Shaoqi’s house-museum, Li Zijiang art gallery, and ceramics center in Lilin), and some other events like the concerts, round tables, sporting events, thematic forums “Day of Russia” and “Day of China”.

July 29, 2019
Photos by R. Abeeva

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