China to invite 100 Yale faculty, students
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-21 00:42
NEW HAVEN, the United States -- Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao on
Friday extended invitation to 100 teachers and students of Yale University to
visit China.
Giving a speech at Yale University in New Haven,
Connecticut, Hu said, "To enhance mutual understanding between young people and
educators of the two countries, I announce with pleasure here that we have
decided to invite 100 Yale faculty members and students to visit China this
summer."
"Young people represent the hope and future of the world," he
said, noting they are full of vitality, new ideas and creativity.
Hu
used an old Chinese saying, which goes "as in the Yangtze River where the waves
behind drive on those before, so a new generation always excels the last one,"
to stimulate the young people.
The president then expressed his hope
that "the young people in China and the United States will join hands and work
to enhance friendship between the two people, and together with people of other
countries, create a better world for all."
Hu also hailed Yale
University and its president Richard Levin for their efforts to promote
exchanges between the two peoples, saying "Yale is a forerunner in conducting
China-U.S. educational exchanges and provides an important platform for cultural
exchanges between our two countries."
"Over the past 20 years, Yale has
accepted over 4,000 Chinese students and undertaken more than 80 cooperation
projects in culture, science and technology, and education with China," Hu
illustrated.
"Last summer, Yale sent the first group of students to
China for internships and some among them became the first foreign interns to
work with China's Palace Museum," he added.
Yale has a long tradition of
links with China, and the first Chinese student, named Yung Wing, graduated from
the university in 1854.
Currently, Yale has more than 60 cooperation
programs with more than 45 educational institutions, research organizations and
government departments in 16 Chinese cities.
Meanwhile, Chinese students
constitute the largest group of foreign students in Yale, with the number
exceeding 600 in 2004.
Yale University was founded in 1701 as the
Collegiate School in the home of Abraham Pierson, its first rector, in
Killingworth, Connecticut. In 1887, it became Yale University.
The
university is the last stop in President Hu's trip to the United States. Hu will
conclude his four-day visit to the United States on Friday afternoon and embark
on the next leg of his five-nation tour, taking him to Saudi Arabia, Morocco,
Nigeria and Kenya.
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