PRESIDENT’S WORDS OF INSPIRATION IN LETTER TO SCHOOL
Students and teachers at a high school in Tacoma, Washington state, have expressed their delight after receiving a very special message from China.
It was the second time — the first was in 2016 — that Chinese President Xi Jinping had written them a letter.
Last month Patrick Erwin, principal of Lincoln High School, sent a letter to Xi, talking of exchanges between his school and China over the years and how the educational partnership is important to his students.
“President Xi is a strong believer in educational exchanges,”Erwin said.“He had written to my students before, but I never had an expectation for this response.”
Erwin received a message from Xi via the Chinese consulate-general in San Francisco in which the president said he had received the letter and encouraged students at the school to build a bridge for people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S.
Xi visited Lincoln High School in 2015, at the start of a state visit to the U.S. He brought gifts, including a pingpong table and books about China, and later sent a personal invitation for the students to visit China.
In 2016 nearly 100 of them took him up on the offer, and Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan sent them a letter later inviting them to return.
Since then the school has arranged annual visits to China. Students have visited cities including Beijing, Shanghai,
Chengdu and Dujiangyan in Sichuan province and Fuzhou in Fujian province.
The last time Lincoln High students got a chance to visit China was in July 2019, when they took part in the International Youth Interactive Friendship Camp in Shanghai, an opportunity for foreign students to learn about traditional Chinese culture through lessons and outdoor activities with local volunteers.
They still regularly communicate on WeChat with friends they met from Shanghai, New Zealand and elsewhere.
About three years ago the school took five students to visit China, and one of them did not know what to expect, Erwin said. “He was excited to go, but he had never traveled and had never been on a plane. Not long ago when I saw this student, who is now in college, he gave me a hug and said he thinks about the trip to China every day.
“It’s a life-changing experience, both in terms of the travel itself, and the exposure to the culture, the history and the Chinese people. My students all want to go back to China and study in China.”