An increasing number of young Americans have been traveling to China in the past two years, each returning with a story of their own.

The Chinese Consulate in Chicago hosted a group of young American writers from the Young Envoys Scholarships (YES) program on Monday to mark the release of East Meets West: 100 American Secondary School Students' Tales About China. These young writers had taken part in a range of exchange programs and study trips to China, and their essays drew on encounters with Chinese communities, classrooms and daily life.

More than 39,000 American youths had visited China through the YES Program by October.

Their participation was part of President Xi Jinping's 2023 pledge to invite 50,000 American youth to study and engage in cultural exchanges in China over five years. Many students, especially those with long-standing interests in China, its language and its culture, had the chance to explore the country up close. Rather than seeing China from a distance, they engaged with people, communities and daily life, gaining a deeper and more nuanced sense of the country.

"You really need to witness the spectacular beauty of the country in order to fully feel immersed in it. I felt so welcomed by the Chinese people," Lily Rabb, 18, told China Daily. Rabb has learned Chinese since she was three years old, and finally traveled to China through the initiative.

"I think it is an incredible way to inspire more people like me who are interested in China, interested in Chinese culture, history and language. I learned so much," she said.

Rabb said she fell in love with Shanghai, and hopes to live in the city one day. She would like to pursue a degree in international relations to follow her passion for China and global affairs.

"Having these students learn about other cultures is helping us become more open-minded and is building these global citizens, which is going to help to be a more collaborative, more helpful society for all of us," Ava Moore, 18, told China Daily.

For her, Chinese culture and language are the most interesting.

"I was getting to learn the tongue twisters because that's such an interesting aspect of Chinese, the way the words move and how different it is from English."

"We just realized that we lived in one big family," Violet Marchesseau, an eighth-grade student at University Liggett School in Michigan, told China Daily. "I learned both English and Chinese, and I would like to be the connector between the two nations to better understand each other."

To Zoey Cardamone, the sayings "reading 10,000 books is not as useful as traveling 10,000 miles" and "a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step" were like threads running through a vast tapestry of Chinese culture — threads that inspired her and kept her motivated in exploring China and Chinese culture.

Cardamone visited Guangzhou, Guangdong province. One moment that captured both cultural differences was when she saw a chicken head on a large platter of chicken. While serving a whole chicken symbolizes completeness and good fortune, and keeping the head and tail represents "beginning to end" in Chinese culture, she has never seen that in the US.

"The East and the West come from different cultural backgrounds, and sometimes we can still find many things in common, and the differences themselves are worth appreciating. It's these points of connection that make our friendships richer and more interesting," she said.

"China has always welcomed American people to get to know the country firsthand," Chicago Consul General Wang Baodong said. "The future of China-US relations lies in our young people. Pickleball, cultural icons such as the Chinese game Black Myth: Wukong and Labubu have become a new bond between Chinese and American youth."

The consulate also launched the YES Friends Club, which hosts activities such as essay collections, video projects, and cultural and sports events. The club gives Chinese and American students more opportunities to connect through shared experiences.

In addition, nine pairs of Chinese and American schools agreed to establish partnerships to expand school-to-school cooperation and explore longer-term exchange programs. The schools signed a memorandum of understanding at the consulate to move the collaboration forward.

Roderick Shaw, head of the Intercultural Montessori Language School, told China Daily that Xi's initiative is focused on "educating the next generation leaders."

"Fifty thousand students are the multipliers, and the number will end up tripling and quadrupling" as more students gain an interest in China, he said.

"Education is the key here. We are educating students. Ignorance is what builds walls, but education builds bridges, and that is the secret of schools getting together and collaborating together, learning from each other, and that is what's going to bring a better world, a better peace in this world."