Lofty goal draws elite satellite students to China

Socheat Chea, a Cambodian student with big dreams, wouldn't attract much attention if he walked down a street in his country since he doesn't talk a lot and is a bit shy around strangers.

His classmate, Edgar Moreno Pena, who is from Venezuela, is more adept at socializing. He has a vocabulary of more than 200 Chinese words, tells shopkeepers on Beijing streets pianyidian (give me a bigger discount) and uses Chinese-language food-delivery apps on his mobile phone.

"I often do shopping at Taobao and JD," he said, referring to China's two most popular online shopping websites.