Nearly 500 Russian teenagers arrive in China for summer camp

Russian students dance during a departure ceremony for a group of Russian children who are ready to spend their summer vacation in China, at the Ocean Children Center in Vladivostok, Russia, on July 30, 2010. A total of 499 Russians, 447 children and 52 teachers and staff workers, will leave Vladivostok on July 31 for China' capital of Beijing to spend their summer vacation there, under a reciprocal program for cultural exchange between China and Russia. (Xinhua/Lu Guodong)

Nearly 500 teenagers from Russia arrived in Beijing on Saturday, kicking off a ten-day summer camp in China as guests of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The summer camp reciprocates Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's hosting of 1,500 Chinese students to Russia for rehabilitation after a 8.0-magnitude earthquake rocked China.

The earthquake struck southwestern China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces on May 12, 2008, leaving some 70,000 people dead and 18,000 others missing.

The delegation is led by Valerie Marzoev, director of the "Ocean" All-Russia Children's Care Center in Vladivostok, where over 900 Chinese students suffering from the devastating earthquake attended a rehabilitation program.

The Russian delegates, aged between 12 to 17, will go to famous historical sites like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, visit Beijing Olympic venues and appreciate traditional Chinese opera. They will also meet with their Chinese peers at a local school.

After the Beijing leg, the teenagers will be divided into two groups and travel to Chinese coastal cities of Qingdao and Dalian, respectively.

President Hu's invitation was made during his Russia trip in 2009. The arrival of the students on Saturday is the first part of the program, which invites about 1,000 Russian teenagers to visit China in two consecutive years.

Source: Xinhua