Editor’s Note: Hebei Province has been having a good relation with Nagano for 30 years with perpetual exchange in terms of economy and culture. In addition, the teenagers communication become more and more popular with the start of “The 21st Century East Asian Youth Exchange Program”. Japan and China only separated by a strait, the two countries bearing much common places in culture and also some differences because of the living environment. However, we two countries are really modest to learn from each other so as to improve the friendship between countries. More importantly, the communication between teenagers is the foundation for our good friendship. During the last years, Nagano organized 35 educator groups to visit our Hebei Province.

Communication group of 6 students and teachers from Japan Nagano are going to have a 5-day visit to our school from 1st to 7th in August.

In the quaint Huacuiyuan, a special classroom with traditional Chinese room structure, vice-principal Zhang made a warm welcome speech for the group. Vice Zhang said that she has received 3 students from Japan studying in our school and all of them have made a further study in Japan right now. This communication from Nagano made a great contribution to our two countries’education development. Vice Zhang hoped that this visiting should not only promote the understanding for each other, but to improve the friendship between two countries.

In order to impress Japan students, Director Zhang made a brief introduction about this tour.

Yang Yuqi from international class as a student representative made a warm welcome for this group, which ended as a activity of writing names on autograph album.

In the following Thai Ji class, students from Japan carefully watched the teacher how to move his hand, foot and body, dare not losing his mind for a second. Exept for the motion, teacher Gao also represented the conception of balance in motion, integral harmony and the theory that man is a integral part of nature. After class, these students gathered together to play Kung Fu with interest. One of the Japanese students, Tian  Cunlinan, said that Thai Ji requires cooperation from the whole body, not only an alone motion. Although he was a bit tired today, he is much happier for learning Thai Ji.

“How much is this?” A Japanese girl, Wang Lihui, is looking forward to the life in Shijiazhuang. Through Chinese class, Japanese students learned how to communicate with each other using simple words. In the game part, calculating currency with Chinese and Math gave them a great time to enjoy that game. After a Chinese class, they could even talk to each other easily in Chinese, like “Hello! I am from Japan, nice to meet you”.

In the traditional Erhu Class, Teacher Li talked about the history and background of Erhu, which interested them a lot in this instrument bearing a profound culture of China,they were all curious about learning Erhu. Li showed the way to play the Erhu, taking an example of Japanese famous song called “Sakura”, students all drowning in this beautiful sound. At the practice part, it is not easy for them to grasp the key point of playing the Erhu, but soon, they got much familiar with this instrument, and there is melodious sound, Little Star, rising from the classroom.

Next is the part of interview from Yanzhao Evening News journalist. Japanese students had a good time with the little reporter, they learned much from each other’s language and culture. At the end of the interview, they left each other contact information.

In the next Beijing Opera Facial Masks Class, art teacher Yue Lihui introduced Beijing Opera, the quintessence of Chinese culture; and also showed them a short video of various characters in opera. After listening to method of drawing a facial mask, Japanese students and the reporter can not wait to make their own mask. As drawing the mask, they discussed how to make it more beautiful and would not look into the sample for a long time until they began to start their own drawing. After two hours, various kinds of masks with different traits were soon presented. Some of them were just busy making a photo of it in order to send it to their friends in Japan; others were wearing masks to dance and sing, what an exciting scene!

Ending the study in a happy atmosphere, Japanese students said that this visiting brought them more love for Chinese culture and more respect for China. With the warm light in Huacuiyuan, all kinds of colorful masks and the smiling faces behind masks together makes a beautiful communication scenery for both China and Japan.