Chengdu students' letters impress reporters during games

Journalists who covered the Chengdu FISU World University Games say they have been touched by the handwritten letters they received from local high school students extolling the attractions of the capital of Sichuan province.

The letters acted as a bridge between writers and readers and helped impart a sense of the hospitality shown by the city's 21 million people, said Liu Tong, a journalist from Xinhua News Agency.

Games organizers encouraged students from Shishi High School to write the letters that were given to both local and overseas journalists when they arrived to cover the event, which started on July 28. The games, which were hailed as a major success, ended on Tuesday.

The letter Liu received was from student Xi Haochen and it drew a broad view of Chengdu and its history.

It detailed Dujiangyan, the world's oldest irrigation system at more than 2,500 years and still in operation, statesman Zhuge Liang (181-234), a personification of Chinese wisdom and loyalty, Du Fu (712-770), one of China's greatest poets, the famous Sichuan Opera, as well as attractions such as pandas and spicy Sichuan food.

Liu said the letter expressed a deep love for the city although the writer would not have known who would read it.