Hebei students follow Xi's steps toward friendship during Iowa study tour

It's been over a month, but Yu Xiaoqing's trip to the United States remains vivid in her memory.

The 13-year-old took part in a weeklong study tour in the Midwestern state of Iowa in early October, together with nine other students and two teachers from Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province.

"I got a small golden pumpkin from Kimberley Farm in Des Moines," the teenager told China Daily on Monday, adding that she saw a truck full of pumpkins as it was harvest time at the farm.

"As Halloween was approaching, the farmer, Rick Kimberley, gave each of us a pumpkin as a gift. I think it was very meaningful because our country's president had been to that farm and fostered friendships with the farmer," she said.

Zhao Suxia, head of the school's foreign affairs office, said the Friendship Inheritance Study Program was initiated for students to retrace the routes President Xi Jinping took during his visits to Iowa in 1985 and in 2012, and for them to advance and expand the friendship.

In the spring of 1985, Xi, then a county leader in Zhengding, Hebei, set foot on US soil for the first time.

Xi led a five-member agricultural delegation to look at farm technology in Muscatine, Iowa, a leading US production area of corn and soybeans.

That trip helped Xi get acquainted with the US, and from then on, he has fostered friendships with US people.

Zhao said the study group also visited the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in Des Moines, as well as the Sino-US Friendship House and Muscatine High School in Muscatine.

The house where Xi stayed in 1985 has come to symbolize the desire of ordinary people for closer ties between China and the US. "We have fully experienced the warm and friendly hospitality of the American people," Zhao said, adding that the trip has also helped plant the seeds of bilateral friendship among youngsters.

Yu was very excited when she told China Daily that she had become friends with several students from Muscatine High School. "I talked with several students in the school about multiple topics, such as painting, music and performances," she said.

Such friendships have also created opportunities for study exchanges among Chinese and US youths.

Zhang Yuchen, a senior high school student from the Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School, participated in a weeklong academic conference that focused on young people's efforts to address global food security issues.

The 2023 World Food Prize Youth Institute event was held in Des Moines from Oct 24 to 27, during which students such as Zhang from across the world shared their recommendations from research they had conducted on food security issues and related topics.

"I shared my study of how cooperation among enterprises, universities and research institutes can contribute to rural vitalization," the 16-year-old said.

Zhang said he had learned a lot from his peers and the panel of experts on food security, agriculture, climate change and sustainability issues.

He said he also discussed other issues with US students such as the different education systems in the two countries.