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.

As the games marked the first time Chengdu had held such a high-level international sporting event, the writers expressed great pride in the city, especially their own school's 2,000-year history.

The school's predecessor was China's first public school and was known as the Stone Chamber of Wen Weng.

Wen Weng was the governor of Shu (the ancient name for Sichuan) prefecture during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). He emphasized the importance of education and built the school in 141 BC to cultivate talent.

Dilli Raman Subedi, Paudel Prakash Babu and Bhattarai Ramesh Kumar, three journalists from Nepal, visited the school on Aug 5 and met Xu Deming and Yuan Jinkun, two of the letter writers.

They ate hotpot together, and Paudel Prakash Babu invited Xu and Yuan to visit Nepal. "We are now friends and hope that you can visit my home country," he said.

Chen Mai and Hu Xinye, two 16-year-old students from the school, were invited by journalists, who were touched by the sincerity expressed in their letters, to visit the Main Media Center for the games on Monday.

The two students, who are both sports fans, were impressed by the journalists' work. Chen said the center was better than he had imagined as it had sports facilities for journalists to exercise and relax.

Chen and Hu also met FISU Acting Chairman Leonz Eder and FISU Secretary General-CEO, Eric Saintrond, in the center.

After talking with the students, Saintrond and Eder wrote the following words: "The school must be very proud of its history and to have so many bright students to represent it. Never give up your own dreams. The future belongs to you!"