Recently, the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation’s annual exchange activity for Junior Cultural Ambassadors brought together young people from 25 countries to Beijing and the capital of Anhui province, Hefei, where they had a week-long tour and cultural experience.

Based on the theme “My Favourite Chinese Festival”, this year’s program invited children and young people from around the world to submit their own videos, which were received from 51 countries in total, with 354 submitted videos.

Sixty-three youth were named Junior Cultural Ambassadors. Of these, 45 delegates from 25 countries, such as Iceland, Bulgaria, Nepal and others, were to be invited to China to join the exchanges for the next week.

It has since then reached more than 1,700 youth and over 100 organisations from 70+ countries to inspire youths from other countries to learn Chinese. It has contributed positively and steadily to people-to-people cultural connectivity and boosted international friendship.

The delegation toured the major cultural sites of Beijing, such as the Palace Museum, the Temple of Heaven and the Tongzhou Grand Canal Museum. They also joined a foreign country’s traditional costume exhibition and participated in interactive Chinese martial art training, Peking opera and folk music training.

The young participants in Hefei visited local high-tech companies and learned hands-on techniques from local craftsmen, including calligraphy, fan painting and paper-cutting, where they experienced the traditional customs and aesthetics of Chinese folk art, as well as the “four treasures of the study,” the brush, the ink, the paper and the inkstone, and the artistry of local artisans.

They also tasted Anhui teas and enjoyed other traditional delicacies such as qingtuan (sweet green rice balls) and mooncakes that suit the seasons, providing a taste of China’s delicious culinary traditions.