Young voyagers encouraged to continue quest

In reply to students, Xi urges more youths in China, US to take up baton of friendship

Twelve days of living and learning together in China added a new item to the bucket lists of both Sun Linlin and Adrian Castillo — to explore more of each other's home country.

The journey, called "A Shared Voyage: China-US Youth Friendship Program", began in late March, when Sun and Castillo, together with 18 other Chinese and US students, set sail from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region aboard a research vessel and traveled via Ningbo, Zhejiang province, to Shanghai.

The 10 US students, the majority of whom had never been to China before, came to the country under the initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping in November 2023 to invite 50,000 young people from the US to visit China for exchange and study programs over the following five years.