As the 2017 China-Russia Forum: New Media-Youth Collaboration approaches, five university students are in Russia to work with 11 young partners there to prepare for the event.

Recruitment of the five took a month, including a thorough selection and interview process of applicants from more than 20 universities nationwide.

The five selected - Wei Danyang, Peking University; Lan Juxin, Communication University of China; Wu Yuhong, Jinan University; Jiang Jie, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies; and Zhao Zijian, Tianjin Normal University - finally stood out.

A farewell meeting for them was held last week in Beijing, and they visited China Daily and spoke with journalists before departing.

Han Lei, editor-in-chief of chinadaily.com.cn, attended the farewell meeting and expressed her hopes and wishes for the student delegation. The five students traveled to Rostov-on-Don on Friday and started eight days of activities beginning in the port city and regional administrative center. The visit is led by Li Jun, deputy editor-in-chief of chinadaily.com.cn, and Professor Wu Fei of the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University.

According to Li, Chinese and Russian student delegations at the forum will discuss new trends, new media and new technology about the use of the internet. They will work together to make a themed video about the Don River.

The 2017 China-Russia Forum: New Media-Youth Collaboration is one of the more important activities under the "China-Russia Media Exchange Year "umbrella. It is another important cultural exchange activity between the two nations following the previous "Year of Nation", "Year of Language", "Year of Tourism" and "Year of Youth". China-Russian media cooperation is expected to become even more important in the future.

This annual activity is organized by the China Daily website and Don State Technical University and supported by China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.

The forum's aim is to build a high-level exchange platform to strengthen cooperation, help increase content, technology and personnel exchanges and deepen friendship between Chinese and Russian media.

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn