Nine Chinese high school students left Beihai for Tulsa, Oklahoma in the United States on Wednesday for a one-month cultural exchange.
The trip by the students and two teachers from a high school in Beihai, a port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is funded by a Sino-US youth exchange program.
They will stay with US high school students and their families for the next 30 days. One of the Chinese students said the group had made contact on line with the US students and their families and were making friends with each other.
It was a good chance for them to see the real United States, he said.
The exchange program has received applications from 78 middle schools in 23 Chinese provinces so far and seven schools have been accepted to take part.
The program was founded in 1998 and is funded by the US government.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2002)
