Yale University delegation to visit China

At the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, a 100-strong delegation of Yale University students and faculty will visit China in May, Yale President Richard Levin said here Thursday.

The visit is a “wonderful opportunity” for the 62 students in the delegation, many of whom have not been to China before, to get to know China, Levin said

“I hope that many of those who go on this trip will subsequently decide to return to further their studies or to work in China,” he said.

The visit will also help strengthen the collaboration between Yale University and universities in China, Levin said.

Yale already has cooperative partnership with 45 universities, governmental and nongovernmental institutions in China.

Both the United States and China are “destined” to become great powers and having more young people know each other and understand each other’s values and concerns will bode well for the future of a peaceful, prosperous relationship between the two countries, Levin said.

President Hu Jintao invited Yale students and faculty to visit China when he visited Yale in April 2006.

“The visit is a very exciting opportunity and a wonderful gesture of friendship offered to us by President Hu Jintao,” Levin said.

Levin will lead the delegation which will include his wife, Jane Levin, director of Yale Directed Studies.

The delegation will visit China from May 15-25.

Jane Levin told Xinhua the visit will be another step in strengthening the bonds between the two countries.

Erica Smith, who studied Chinese language in China for eight months last year, said she looks forward to going back to China.

“I look forward to sharing my experience with other Yale students,” Smith, who specialized in East Asian Studies, told Xinhua.

In a speech at Yale last year, President Hu said “Yale is a forerunner in conducting China-U.S. educational exchanges and provides an important platform for cultural exchanges between our two countries.”

The 600 Chinese students and scholars currently at Yale form the biggest complement of any foreign country at the university.

The delegation will visit Beijing University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University in Shanghai and Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, Shanxi Province. They will meet Chinese students, scholars, and government officials, tour major cultural and historical sites in Beijing and Shanghai, and explore historical sites in Xi’an.