Yoga teacher from India settles down in Kunming

KUNMING — Yengkhom Ronica obtained her doctorate from Yunnan University last summer. After nearly a decade of study in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, she decided the city was where she wanted to live and work.

Hailing from India, Yengkhom is a teacher at the India-China Yoga College at Yunnan Minzu University, where she teaches an overview of Indian culture and the basics of yoga philosophy.

She first came to Kunming in 2012 through an exchange program. Two years later, after receiving a postgraduate scholarship from the Chinese government, she moved back to Kunming to pursue her master's and doctorate at Yunnan University.

Driven by her love of Chinese culture and of sharing Indian culture, she joined Yunnan Minzu University after graduating.

"I am a beneficiary of cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and India, and I am very happy to be a witness and promoter of China-India cultural and people-to-people exchanges," she said.

Yengkhom added that the university has set up a China-India cultural and people-to-people exchange center to improve relations between the two countries.

Bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, Yunnan is China's gateway to South and Southeast Asia.

Forty-six universities in the province have established cooperative relations with educational institutions in 62 countries and regions, as well as 11 international talent training bases.

The number of international students in Yunnan once exceeded 40,000, with many hailing from South and Southeast Asian countries. Many graduates go on to look for employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in China.

Zeeshan Shafiq, 34, is a former electrical engineer from Pakistan. He came to Yunnan in 2019 to pursue a doctorate in transportation engineering at the Kunming University of Science and Technology.

It was his childhood dream to visit China. After earning his master's, he applied to study at the Kunming University of Science and Technology and received a scholarship. After graduation, he plans to stay and work in China and bring his family.

China and South Asian countries account for one-fifth of the global economy.

On Aug 20, the seventh China-South Asia Expo ended in Kunming. When the first expo was held in 2013, the trade volume between China and South Asian countries amounted to less than $100 billion, but the figure rose to $197.4 billion last year, with an average annual growth rate of 8.3 percent.

Xinhua