President Hu comes to Central Asia with gift of books
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: Wearing the typical southern Chinese tie-dyedclothes and big red flowers in their hair, six girls sang the traditional Chinese song What a Beautiful Jasmine to Chinese President Hu Jintao as they waved traditional Chinese fans painted in classical red.
The performance was given when the Chinese president handed a list of books, mainly on Chinese culture and philosophy, to the Astana-based Confucius Institute cosponsored by the Kazakhstan Eurasian University and China's Xi'an International Studies University on Saturday.
China and its Central Asian neighbors have had many cultural and personnel exchanges as well as trade and economic cooperation. Hu, on his visits to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan over the weekend, gave thousands of books to those learning Chinese in the two countries.
