(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-12 07:59

SOFIA -- Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria Zhang Wanxue Sunday visited the Chinese students from quake-hit Chongqing Municipality who are in Bulgaria to recuperate.

Related readings:  Students from China's quake-hit region tour Bulgaria

Ambassador Zhang greeted the Chinese children at the rehabilitation center of Bulgarian Defense Ministry in the Balkan mountain area, some 160 km from Bulgarian capital Sofia, as they arrived for their second phase of rehabilitation from the Black sea resort Kranevo.

Zhang and his wife brought gifts for every child and he said: "I'm so delighted to see you are high-spirited and healthy."

He also encouraged them to make friends with the Bulgarian children and carry on the Chinese-Bulgarian friendship.

More than 40 Chinese students from Chongqing began their 20-day rehabilitation tour to Bulgaria on Aug. 5.

Bulgaria, Hungary and Russia have invited students in and around China's southwest Sichuan Province which was hit by a 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12 to recuperate. Over 1,000 Chinese children have recuperated in Russia since July 17.