Desire grows for more educational interactions, closer bonds as dialogue rekindled

Having been living on the French Riviera for more than 20 years, Yan, originally from Zhejiang province, fondly recalled her initial proposal for bilateral exchanges with Hangzhou Foreign Languages School during a trip in 2009. The response was immediate and positive, she said.

"They sent a delegation to visit our school right in 2010 and I then helped organize a delegation of teachers and students to go to Hangzhou in 2012," she said. The two-week China trip included a week in Beijing and a week of exchange at the Hangzhou school.

2014 was the peak year for exchanges when a formal agreement of cooperation was signed, she said. Two of Yan's students studied at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School for three weeks that October.