From Russia with love

"Sochi's and Hainan's climates are similar. If we start doing dolphin assisted therapy in China, the new rehabilitation base will be able to service more families. After all, it's not cheap for families to travel to Russia for the treatment."

China and Russia have collaborated in psychological treatment before, notably 11 years ago.

Under an agreement in 2008 by Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and the Chinese President Hu Jintao, 1,570 primary and high school students affected by the Wenchuan earthquake of May 8 that year were evacuated to the Russian Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok to recuperate.

Nearly 70,000 people died and about 18,000 were missing after the magnitude 8.0 earthquake devastated the county in Sichuan province.

One of those evacuated to Vladivostok was a severely traumatized He Yujiao, whose father died in the quake. Ten years later she would recall how when she arrived at the Ocean All-Russia Children's Care Center she was tired and devastated and that Russian teachers and students welcomed her and other survivors in Chinese and made them feel at home.

The staff prepared spicy noodles, food the children ate at home, to help them feel at ease. The location also helped. They awoke to the sound of ocean waves that had a soothing effect, and the children were encouraged to swim and to skate.

"Our plan was to help them leave behind the memories of the tragedy through psychological therapy," a teacher at the center said.

When it was time for the children to return to China, almost everyone had gained weight, and they hugged their teachers and friends and promised to return one day.

During a state visit to Russia in March 2013, President Xi Jinping recounted at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations the story of Russia's prompt assistance.

Last year Xi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, visited the Ocean All-Russia Children's Care Center and met some of the children from Wenchuan who had been taken care of 10 years earlier.

In his address at the event, Xi said the two countries are good neighbors and partners and have helped each other in difficult times.

Collaboration between the two countries in child psychology therapy is just in its initial stages, Jia said.

"We expect to establish long-term collaboration and that more Chinese children will benefit from the exchanges between China and Russia."