By Chong Zi and Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-09 06:58

Fukuhara was one of the young Japanese welcoming Chinese peers including China's table tennis heavyweight Wang Nan.

Fukuhara speaks fluent Chinese with a Northeast China accent because she has been receiving professional training there since her kindergarten years. In 2005, she became the first foreigner to play in China's domestic table tennis tournament.

She was named one of goodwill ambassadors of the 2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year.

It is not the first time Hu had exchanges with Japanese youth.

In 1984, Hu, then the first secretary of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League and chairman of the All-China Youth Federation, was responsible for receiving 3,000 young Japanese visiting China to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the normalization of the China-Japan relations.

The following year, Hu led a 100-member Chinese delegation on a reciprocal visit.

Agencies contributed to the story

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